Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is the equivalent of saying you are not allowed talk about banking regulation if you have a bank account. The only person I remember in the Chamber who could meet that standard was the former leader of Fianna Fáil. What a weird analogy.

For years we were sold the dream that automation and AI would free people from drudgery, allowing society to prosper and with fewer working hours and more leisure. Any of us who watched the inauguration of Trump saw the tech billionaires lined up behind him have only one purpose in mind - the erosion of workers' rights and the deployment of wealth to their own ends. We cannot step away from that reality. Of course,there are opportunities here to build a new system but what the tech billionaires aspire to is a system where power is concentrated, where automation would serve the few while the rest of us are expected to adapt, and a scramble for security in an economy that no longer values human labour.

We cannot afford to sleepwalk into that future. Of course we have to be bold in accepting the reality of AI. It is happening whether we like it or not. We cannot put that milk back into the bottle even if we would like to. That does not mean we just have to be subservient to it. If we accept the fact there will be increased automation and AI that does not mean we have to have increased electricity bills for consumers. That does not mean we have to just hand over our legitimacy to these tech oligarchs and allow them in many ways to not only dictate the pace of our economy but also the pace of our foreign policy. When it comes to some of the decisions we are taking with regard to Gaza and occupied territories Bill, it was all designed to plamás these same figures.

The first and foremost challenge is an assurance that AI serves workers. That same previous Fianna Fáil speaker said that AI will not replace jobs. That is just clearly not true. On a very basic level I represent the north inner city community where containerisation down in the docks created a huge displacement of workers. That void still has not been filled so to say that is simply not true.

The Taoiseach spoke yesterday about a fourth industrial revolution. In every revolution new technology has created wealth but the distribution of that wealth has always been a political choice. AI will of course be no different. If companies automate jobs and increase profits then we should not shy away from demanding they contribute back whether through taxation, social investment, or policies to ensure job retraining and redeployment and bring the conversation of a universal basic income of a very real standard to the table. We are clearly nearly at that point and this is not a distant concern.

As we are well-informed, Ireland's tech sector employs more than 150,000 people. If AI is used recklessly those jobs will be at risk. Let us not pretend this is just about tech companies.

AI is used frequently in finance, legal services and customer support. AI is even being used in creative industries. We absolutely need regulation to ensure AI complements human work rather than undermines it. To simply say that should not be seen as us being fearful or not understanding the possibilities. That is just acknowledging the reality and seeking to do what we are supposed to do in this Chamber which is to legislate for it and not be beholden to those same interests.

There is another immediate challenge, one Ireland cannot afford to ignore. AI is not just about data and algorithms, it is also about energy. Training large AI models consumes staggering amounts of electricity. Running them requires large amounts of it. Many of them are right here in Ireland. We know that. We should have these conversations. We should not be just talking pie in the sky about how great it will be. We should seek to regulate to ensure that everybody benefits and not just a few.

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