Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Deputy on the work he is doing in the artificial intelligence committee. I listened in to most of this week's meeting. As the Deputy has said, the young people who spoke were very articulate and great advocates for the young person's perspective on artificial intelligence and the impact it will have. I thank the Deputy and the committee for the work they are doing. They are doing us all a service in interrogating the issues in this area.

As the Deputy will be aware, the EU AI Act entered into force in August 2024 with a very ambitious timeline for national implementation. The role of AI across our economy and society is of crucial importance and provides all of us with huge opportunities while also necessitating guardrails around its deployment. I believe that is what the Deputy is referencing when he talks about our sandboxes and that national AI office. It is about having space for innovation and creativity. Start-up companies must be very clear on the guardrails but the development of such companies or the AI apps we will see in the future should not be inhibited. That is an ambition of mine. It should be a positive rather than a negative. It should not be a regulatory body that just says "No, you cannot do this" but a place where people can experiment and be certain that what they are creating and devising is human-centred and will not provide any harmful content. As Chair of the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence, the Deputy will be fully aware of the need to drive innovation while also protecting our citizens.

While the details of the AI office are being finalised and my Department has retained professional consultancy services to assist, four clear functions for the AI office have currently been established. The first is to co-ordinate the competent authorities' activities to ensure consistent implementation of the EU AI Act in Ireland. I had the pleasure of facilitating one of those meetings last week. We had the 15 competent authorities in the room and all on the same page with an ambition to do this. The second function is to act as a single point of contact for the EU AI Act and the third is to facilitate centralised access to technical expertise for the competent authorities, as required. The final function is to drive AI innovation and adoption through the hosting of a regulatory sandbox and to act as a focal point for AI in Ireland encompassing regulation, innovation and deployment.

My officials are currently developing the general scheme of the regulation of artificial intelligence Bill. This general scheme will provide for the implementation and enforcement of the AI Act at a national level in domestic legislation, including the establishment of the new AI office as an independent statutory agency. I take the Deputy's point. In its infancy, the office will be set up under my Department but, as the Deputy knows, the final creation will be an independent statutory entity. The Minister, Deputy Burke, will bring the general scheme to Government in the next four weeks.

Detailed work plans have been developed to ensure the AI office is in place by August 2026. These are informed by research and analysis prepared for my Department by leading professional services firms. Funding for the new office will be determined as part of budget 2026. The implementation of the AI Act is truly a cross-government initiative. As the Deputy himself has said on many occasions, this cannot be something that happens within the Department of enterprise alone. A whole-of-government approach must be taken. I was delighted to see the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, launch guidelines on the implementation of AI within public services at the beginning of the summer. The implementation of the AI Act is truly a cross-government initiative and I look forward to working in a very collaborative way across government to ensure Ireland achieves its ambition of being a centre of regulatory excellence and maintaining its place as a leader in human-centric and responsible AI.

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