Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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721. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment given the eight competent authorities for the EU AI Act announced in March, if he will set out the specific regulatory bodies and market surveillance authorities that are responsible for each of the prohibitions laid in Article 5 of the EU AI Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46930/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Article 5 of the EU AI Act sets out eight prohibited practices, listed below:

a) Subliminal techniques likely to cause that person, or another, significant harm,

b) Exploiting vulnerabilities due to age, disability or social or economic situation,

c) Social scoring leading to disproportionate detrimental or unfavourable treatment,

d) Profiling individuals for prediction of criminal activity,

e) Untargeted scraping of facial images,

f) Inferring emotions in work or education,

g) Biometric categorisation of race, religion, sexual orientation...,

h) Real-time remote biometric identification in public places for law enforcement purposes.

The sanctions under this Article are severe, including fines of up to the greater of €35 million or 7% of the previous year’s global turnover per violation.

Due to the scale of the penalties provided for under the AI Act, primary legislation is required in Ireland to enact the enforcement regime for designated competent authorities. The required primary legislation is currently in the preparation stage and on course to be enacted in advance of 2 August 2026, at which point powers of enforcement for the competent authorities will apply under the AI Act.

While a subset of the designated competent authorities will be responsible for prohibited practices under the AI Act, work is ongoing to finalise the precise roles and responsibility in relation to each of the prohibited practices set out under Article 5. The nature of the prohibited practices is such that there is complex interplay within aspects of the practices and with other risks areas regulated under the AI Act. My officials are working closely with the relevant bodies to address those areas and to ensure a robust and coherent regulatory framework is in place in advance of 2 August 2026, at which point powers of enforcement for the competent authorities will apply under the AI Act. My Department will be in a position to advise on more specifically on the competent authorities for each of the prohibited practices once this work has been finalised with the relevant bodies. In addition, my Department acts as the Single Point of Contact for the AI Act in Ireland to assist with any queries in relation to the regulation of AI in Ireland. Information for the Single Point of Contact is available on my Department's website.