Professor Deirdre Ahern:

I will continue from that. The chair of the council, in her opening remarks, referred to us not just being rule-takers. That was a very good point. To some extent, we have to take the rules that come from Europe. They distinguish us from the US and other markets where there is a sort of free market approach and it is up to companies what they choose to do and how they set best practice; it could be a race to the top or a race to the bottom. We are part of a social market economy within Europe. The EU has led, from 2017 on, in the proposal and development of the EU Artificial Intelligence, AI, Act, which entered into force last year and is undergoing a phased adoption at present.

There are always things one can criticise about regulation, particularly when this was the first jurisdiction in the world to put in place a bespoke framework, but putting it in place helps to provide a framework for business. It is challenging at times to comply. I would echo the points that we really need to focus on in Ireland. While we have to take the regulation as is, there is a lot in terms of the implementation that we can do here to help companies understand how to comply. It is a colossal Act and even for lawyers in the room - Deputy Geoghegan is one of them - there are a lot of complexities there. We can focus on helping with the application of the Act through measures like regulatory sandboxes, which can help companies, particularly SMEs, to understand to what extent the regulations apply. There are also aspects that are not covered by the EU AI Act where we have to work on our own values.

At the same time, the EU is re-evaluating somewhat, as the Deputy said, since the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit and the roll-over of the new Commission. We are probably playing our part in that discussion in terms of competitiveness. Ireland has always been interested in ensuring that it is a competitive place to do business and a leader in the digital space and I think Ireland will continue to have those discussions. There may be places where there has to be a pause on the roll-out of some of the AI Act because we are still missing some of the implementing guidance and rules that have yet to be worked out. It is an interesting time but Ireland can continue to play a part. It has always done so. In the digital regulation space, we have wonderful regulators who will continue to play a role. As a common law, English-speaking country, we can provide a place to passport into Europe. That is where we carve out our niche. I am hopeful that we can do so very well.