Mr. Ronan Lupton:

I will pick up on two points. Those investing in AI are doing so to make efficiencies in their businesses. That is why that is being done. When they are doing that, they will be subject to pre-existing frameworks under GDPR, which is a personal data framework. We are looking like we are slightly deficient in other aspects of data governance and regulation in that regard. There are approximately 26 legislative instruments coming centrally from Europe at the moment, which all involve aspects of law enforcement data - let us call them "new technology" legislation - and fundamentally come into the mix when discussing this issue. That is one side of the coin, which is an employer, an organisation or a government investing in AI to make efficiencies.

On the flipside of that coin is a generating AI, which is the investment and development story that Ireland has been traditionally good at in attracting foreign direct investment and companies to the State. There are complaints about data centres and climate change and all those issues, which we will park for the moment, but, ultimately, we are still an attractive economy because of our workforce in terms of education and the ability to perform and behave in a fashion, which makes us cutting edge to some degree.

The Deputy is correct in the sense of where Ireland was. We are not there anymore. We were seen as a soft-touch or light regulatory approach economy but that has changed in the past ten years. It has been forced to change in respect of the data protection side of the house but also issues relating to competition and regulation in sectoral spaces that have cleaned up many aspects of areas. WIth the Internet, for example, there was no regulation or there was so-called "self-regulation". We now have the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the Digital Services Act coming on, the audiovisual media services directive 2, AVMSD2, and the Government putting very great care and attention and detail into how that regulator will work. It was only founded in the past nine months but, ultimately, it is a step in the right direction. We are no longer seen as that soft touch in the context of the global sphere but we are still attractive, and that is an important message. I am not making that statement on behalf of The Bar of Ireland. It is simply my own observation.