Results 1,161-1,180 of 1,637 for speaker:Marie Sherlock

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: The AI Act is very much about product regulation and much less about the operation within businesses and workplaces. I welcome what the witnesses have said. Much of the research on AI is about the expected future use. I have not seen any comprehensive assessment or survey of the current use within workplaces. The witnesses are living and breathing this every day. What share of...

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements (22 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I move: That Seanad Éireann: notes that: - Ireland has a privatised waste collection system with a small number of very large operators; in many urban areas, there is significant competition for the market with the result that in some areas, multiple bin lorries from competing companies will travel the same streets; in other areas, market failure arises with no service provision...

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements (22 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Tuigim é sin. There is a critical shortfall there in not having a national waste operator in this country.

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements (22 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: We understand that a significant number of legislative changes are required to be put forward. I am sure Senator Wall will indulge me while I go through them. Under the Waste Management Act 1996, there is no specific obligation on local authorities to collect waste because of the number of disapplications that exist in the legislation. Under the Competition Act 2002, it is difficult for a...

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements (22 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State for his thoughtful contribution. I also thank Senators Kyne, Boyhan, Maria Byrne, McDowell and Warfield, and also my Labour Party colleagues Senators Hoey and Wall. I believe I heard the Minister of State say he was very open to considering a system of competition for the market. That is a crucial point in our motion. We have always been very clear that in...

Seanad: Employment Permits Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (28 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I wish to speak to the amendment as well. When this Bill was going through pre-legislative scrutiny, there was serious concern within the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment about the introduction of seasonal permits. The record has not been good in this country regarding a number of employers and migrant work permits. We have a labour inspectorate that remains...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (28 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. I welcome the Bill. I recall that in late 2007, when I was a new official in SIPTU, I met the then Minister, Mary Hanafin, just after the launch of the Green Paper on auto-enrolment. It is sad to think that it has taken 17 years to get to this point, but it is a point we welcome nonetheless. It is important to say that it has been 17 missed years of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I apologise that I could not be here earlier. I warmly welcome all our witnesses. These hearings are very important because, as has been said a number of times, there is a lot that we still need to understand given we are still very much learning about generative AI. I am very excited about the prospect of what it can deliver in the public and private sectors but I am also cognisant of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: The Spanish AI supervisory authority was set up six months ago. Each of the organisations represented today has a presence there. I raised this issue at the previous meeting on AI. What engagement has each of the organisations had with the Spanish regulatory authority? Did they initiate contact with it? What has that engagement been like and what do they expect to come out of it into the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Is it a policy discussion or a product safety interaction? That effectively is the focus of the authority. That is what I want to understand. You develop a generative AI product and it is for them to assess the various ins and outs of it. Has that happened with regard to Microsoft?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Okay, thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Thank you. Running through all the submissions and contributions today is the need for responsible AI. That requires regulation but also the tech companies' own internal practices as well. We have AWS and Amazon here today and we are all aware that there is a very poor reputation across many fulfilment centres for Amazon and AWS. I am delighted to hear Mr. Brophy talking about some of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: That is welcome.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: There is nothing to block Amazon from recognising trade unions. I have heard what Mr. Brophy had to say about positive use of AI with regard to helping Amazon workers. Surely it would send a very positive signal that Ireland is not one of those countries where Amazon has a poor workers' rights record. A key way to do that would be to recognise trade unions, so that it is not just left to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Do I take that as a "no", that Amazon is not willing to recognise the trade union members within the fulfilment centres in this country?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Okay, grand. When the request is made, I am sure the response will be positive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Okay, thank you.

Seanad: Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022: Second Stage (13 Jun 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister for bringing this legislation before us. There will be many descriptions of it but there is no doubt that it is groundbreaking legislation. It is hard in some ways to fathom that it has taken 19 years since the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction to get to this point, that we have had the heads of Bill since 2017, and that, notwithstanding those terrible delays,...