Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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529. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline the Government’s response to the latest recommendation of Ireland’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisory Council to build-out national AI testbeds for multiple sectors. [11474/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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530. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline the Government’s response to the latest recommendation of Ireland’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisory Council to establish a dedicated Irish AI Office to ensure a central point of authority across Government, cohesive governance, clear success metrics, and a coordinated AI strategy and policy approach across all Departments. [11475/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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532. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to implement the EU AI Act; the way it is planned to provide simplified ways of compliance for SMEs. [11492/25]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 529, 530 and 532 together.

I thank the Deputy for raising these important issues.

The AI Advisory Council plays an important role in advising the Government on how to best harness AI opportunities and manage the associated risks. On 21st February, the Council released its latest report, “Ireland’s AI Advisory Council Recommendations – Helping to Shape Ireland’s AI Future.” I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Council for this comprehensive report and expert recommendations.

As the Council has noted, AI offers transformative potential for our economy, public services, and quality of life for our citizens. However, this rapidly evolving technology also presents significant challenges, particularly concerning privacy, safety, and fundamental rights and the Council’s recommendations in this context are very timely.

The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which came into force in August 2024, provides a comprehensive legal framework for ensuring that the adoption of AI in Ireland proceeds in a responsible and ethical manner. It is designed to provide a high level of protection to people’s health, safety, and fundamental rights and to simultaneously promote the adoption of human-centric, trustworthy AI.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department is leading the national implementation of the AI Act, which requires whole-of-government cooperation due to its complexity, breadth of scope, and cross-cutting nature. Following a public consultation that garnered wide stakeholder input, the government decided to adopt a distributed model for implementation, leveraging the deep knowledge and expertise of our established sectoral regulators. On 4th March 2025, the Government approved the designation of an initial list of eight public bodies as competent authorities.

Additional authorities, and a lead regulator who will coordinate enforcement of the Act and provide a number of centralised functions, will be designated by a future government decision to ensure comprehensive implementation of the Act. The designation of a lead regulator will ensure consistency in implementation.

My Department is actively assessing options and mandate for a lead and coordinating regulator for the Act, including the possible establishment of a new entity, having regard to the Council’s recommendation. A dedicated unit is being stood-up within the Department to progress this work and to ensure that the market surveillance regime will be fully operational in advance of the August 2026 deadline.

It is important to note that the AI Act is a harmonised EU Regulation with direct legal effect in all Member States. Consequently, the obligations it places on regulated entities, including SMEs, are settled EU law, which is directly applicable in Ireland. The needs and constraints of SMEs, including startups, were taken into consideration during the drafting of the Regulation.

The AI Act adopts a risk-based approach, so that its measures are targeted and proportionate. Consequently, many SMEs will incur, no or minimal, regulatory obligations under the Act due to the low risk nature of their AI systems.

The Act provides simplified ways of compliance for SMEs, and the interests of SMEs must be represented in the development of standards under the Act. It requires the European Commission to regularly assess the certification and compliance costs for SMEs and to work with Member States to lower such costs. Member States must provide priority access to the AI regulatory sandboxes for SMEs. Member States must establish dedicated channels for communication to support SMEs throughout their development journey by providing guidance and responding to queries about the implementation of this Regulation.The Act stipulates that penalties for infringements of the Act must take into account the interests of SMEs and their economic viability.

My Department worked with CeADAR, Ireland’s National Centre for AI, which is funded by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, to develop an online AI training course “AI for You: Introduction to AI and the EU AI Act”, which is available free of cost to all SMEs.

In addition to protecting people’s health, safety, and fundamental rights, the AI Act is also designed to simultaneously promote AI investment and innovation. One of the principal mechanisms for achieving this is a mandatory obligation on EU Member States to establish an AI regulatory sandbox to spur innovation, while supporting compliance with the regulation. The national sandbox programme will provide a supervised environment that fosters innovation and facilitates the development, training, testing and validation of innovative AI systems by start-ups and SMEs. Officials in my Department are currently working to establish such an initiative, which must be operational by August 2026.

Finally, I want to assure the Deputy that this Government is absolutely committed to comprehensive and effective implementation of the AI Act in Ireland to drive the development and adoption of ethical and trustworthy AI. I am confident that the proactive and considered approach we are taking will ensure that Ireland can harness the benefits of AI while mitigating its risks.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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531. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide an update on progress on the recommendation of pillar 3 (relating to enterprise) of the 2024 refresh of Ireland’s national AI strategy. [11476/25]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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A Refresh of Ireland's National AI Strategy was published in November 2024. My Department has a particular focus on delivery of the actions contained within Strand 3, "Driving AI in Enterprise".

My Department is progressing research on the impact of artificial intelligence on the Irish economy with the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council and the AI Advisory Council, with a view to reporting on results later this year.

We are focused on driving AI adoption in small businesses with targeted supports through our agencies. Enterprise Ireland has recently launched a new five-year strategy, “Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally”. The strategy includes a number of key initiatives to drive AI usage in Irish enterprises.

EI will provide businesses with guidance and expertise to aid digital transformation through four European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH). My Department is currently working with the EDIHs to develop clear and consistent messaging on how businesses can access the available supports. The four EDIHs are CeADAR (Dublin), ENTIRE (Cork), FxC (Mullingar) and Data2Sustain (Sligo).

My Department has worked with CeADAR to develop a new online AI literacy training course “AI for You: Introduction to AI and the EU AI Act”, which is available since January 2025 fully funded by EI and the European Commission to all SMEs.

Furthermore, in partnership with the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), EI aims to stimulate and foster the next generation of Irish enterprise successes by helping ambitious start-ups to access finance, build capacity, and grow domestically and internationally. The new strategy includes an initiative to increase the number of investments for pre-seed and early-stage start-ups in highly innovative sectors across AI and machine learning, deep-tech, advanced manufacturing, digital, healthcare, creative, and sustainability.

My colleague, the Minister for Finance recently announced the Relief for Investment in Innovative Enterprises, known as Angel Investor Relief. This change along with the 42% increase in the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme will enable Enterprise Ireland to create larger funds that will be invested in Irish firms in key areas such as AI.

My officials are also working with business representative groups to develop a collaborative campaign to increase Digital and AI adoption among micro and SMEs. Case studies will play an important role in inspiring others to use digital tools.

The Grow Digital Portal, funded by the Digital Transition Fund (DTF), highlights digital opportunities while offering advice and supports to businesses. It has a case study catalogue with digital success stories showcasing how different (non tech) businesses have embraced digital solutions to boost their operations.

My officials are progressing the development of the regulatory sandbox.

A report on progress of the National AI Strategy will be brought to Government at the end of the year.