Mr. Liam Herrick:

We conduct a poll every year on public attitudes and knowledge about human rights and equality issues. In our poll for 2025, and going back over the past three years, we had a question on artificial intelligence because of the commission's function under the Act. The polls are carried out with Ipsos and it is a large sample of over 1,200 adults. It is robust data and a good tracker of how public attitudes are changing. The percentage of respondents over the three years saying that they are familiar with artificial intelligence has increased. There is more public knowledge and understanding, yet the level of public concern and trust in State regulation is still very low. The reason we made reference to it today is that we think it is important to send a message to policymakers such as Oireachtas Members that the public, we believe, has a strong appetite and a will for robust regulation in this area. It is pertinent at this time because at the European level we are seeing, and certainly from the United States, a strong political message against regulation. It is talking about competitiveness and against regulation. This was the message that was used by social media platforms over the past ten or 15 years; that we had to have light regulation or even self-regulation for competitiveness and jobs. We all know that this has had some very negative consequences and particularly for young people. We would caution that this is an area where listening to the public and their desire for protection is well worth listening to from a policymaker perspective.