Dr. Laura Bambrick:

That is a valid point, especially because the focus is on regulation and that is right. However, if we are going to discuss the topic of AI in the workplace, another area we must look at is the potential for technological unemployment. That will also mean preparing today's workforce to be able to use that technology in order to prevent unemployment where we can. That is not trade unions suggesting that AI will lead us to a jobless future. As Professor O'Hare mentioned, it will be like previous industrial revolutions, in that unknown jobs and industries will be created but there will be winners and losers.

Collective bargaining will not be enough to prevent that. We will need to look at our skilling, reskilling and upskilling opportunities and we will have to look at the right of workers to have paid leave.

At the moment, we are reliant on having a proactive employer to walk their employees through and future-proof their employees. On the other hand I mention individual workers in media, law, academia or research. None of the witnesses here today is future-proofed in the jobs we do. How do we be proactive? We need our employers to do it because we have no rights to income protection and skill training leave. Ireland is an anomaly in that. We should look at regulation of AI in general and in the workplace but we have to future-proof our workforce. We have to prepare those workers where parts of their jobs are going to be changed so that they will be able to move with their jobs, and where their jobs will be displaced, we must look at how we move them into new jobs and ensure those jobs that are created are good jobs for workers to move into. There is a whole body of work in looking at AI and the workplace and, unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity to discuss that today.