James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair. I wish him well in his role. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues on a cross-party basis on understanding AI and how it is currently impacting this State, other states and sectors on a cross-sectoral basis. Ireland is uniquely placed to play a leading role in the regulatory discussion that is taking place and potentially in the adaptation of AI within our State. We cannot be naive, however, in simply adapting what these companies are creating into our system in a kind of a wild west manner. In fairness, some of the regulatory stuff coming out of the United States at the moment would give us all pause for concern.

I hope this committee can lean on the expertise that exists in this country. Seven of the top 11 large language model, LLM, companies are based here. A lot of them are based in my constituency, apart from anything else. We can learn a lot from what they are doing and from engaging with them. Hopefully, we can engage on a sectoral basis, whether that is the healthcare, education or legal sector, to understand what those sectors are piloting at the moment in order that we as legislators can support the regulation of an area that, regardless of whether we are fearful, is here.

We need to respond appropriately in a European way because Europe is a continent of innovation. While we have competitiveness challenges with the United States and China at the moment, we should not lose sight of our own identity. I am confident that Europe can adapt AI in a way that is extremely European. I hope Ireland can use the opportunity presented by what is taking place in the world right now to lead in that regard.