Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The EU Presidency will provide a wonderful platform to every Department, but particularly to this one, to demonstrate that Ireland takes a rules-based approach and that it is not the wild west when it comes to AI any more than it was for the social media companies.

The Senator raised competitiveness. The Minister, Deputy Burke, and I are working on including AI and the sandbox in the competitiveness action plan in order that it allows for innovation and ensures we continue to hold our global reputation for competitiveness. To answer the Senator's question, that would be one of the purposes of the sandbox. The competitiveness is also at the forefront of our mind, that we remain a country in which it is good and easy to do business, be it in the SME sector or in AI.