ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS transforming almost every aspect of our society and we need to harness this technology’s potential while also safeguarding citizens and public institutions.

We need to balance the desire for innovation and using AI to improve the delivery of public services with appropriate regulation that reflects our values.

Regulation and innovation are not mutually exclusive, but in fact, complementary.

Setting out clear guardrails that provide for necessary societal protections is a critical part of allowing for the development of new goods and services.

Committee’s first report 

Today, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence publishes our first report.

The Committee comprises nine TDs and five Senators and is drawn from across the political spectrum. We have worked collaboratively with the aim of positioning Ireland to the fore in the debate on the use of AI, of encouraging public discussion of the technology and of exploring the enormous opportunities as well as the potentially extremely serious harms.

We want to engage in proactive policymaking and to ensure Ireland is best prepared for the disruption that is occurring and will occur in the years ahead.

We commenced our work with some ‘State of the Nation’ assessments of how Ireland is engaging with AI and determined to look at all issues through the lens of the citizen.

In particular, we held a number of sessions to give a specific focus to the themes of AI and children and young people; AI and older people; AI and disability.

We are currently exploring how the State uses and might use AI in improving the delivery of public services and we will go on to have modules on themes such as AI and healthcare, AI and education, AI and the creative industries, AI and energy.

This is a learning space for all of us and we want to see these discussions explored in public fora across the country.

We make a number of recommendations today that we would like to see underpin the national agenda in this space in 2026 and beyond.

We welcome the Government commitment to establish the National Artificial Intelligence Office, which we believe must be independent.

It is critical that this office is appropriately resourced and it is positive that there was a specific allocation in the Budget. Its role is in overseeing the implementation of the EU AI Act but it cannot be simply a “thou shalt not” body.

It must work to support organisations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, civic society organisations and public bodies to ensure that they can use AI safely in delivering better services. It must also act as a hub to support regulators who are charged with overseeing the deploying of AI in the sectors that they regulate.

Critical to all of this is that these regulators are upskilled and resourced to be able to meet these opportunities.

Indeed, upskilling features right throughout our recommendations.

While the EU AI Act requires companies and organisations to ensure an internal understanding of AI when used by such bodies, we believe that there is a need for broader public information campaigns as well as greater availability of education and training programmes across the State on the use of AI.

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AI and the public service

Understanding of the new technology and its potential benefits and harms should be embedded across the public service and all government departments should treat this as a priority.

Our committee is particularly keen to see the establishment of a National Artificial Intelligence Observatory, an independent agency that can monitor the impacts of AI and other technologies on society and the economy and make evidence based recommendations on how the State can respond.

For example, where we see shifts in employment patterns as a result of new tech, that we are ready to respond with upskilling measures or changes to education and training curricula. This Observatory can support the excellent work of the independent AI Advisory Council, that has done excellent work to date, and which we believe should be put on a permanent footing.

Next October, Ireland will host a major AI Summit as part of our Presidency of the European Union. This is an opportunity for Ireland to lead in the global public debate around AI. We welcome the focus on Skills for the Digital Age and we want to see the Summit explore how we can ethically use AI to improve the lives of all citizens and tackle digital divides.

We strongly support the use of regulatory sandboxes that will allow companies and organisations to trial the use of AI enabled products, programmes and services in a safe way. Regulators should be preparing to establish such environments and putting essential guardrails in place.

Our committee wants to support innovators that they can operate with confidence in an appropriately regulated and well informed environment while also assuring citizens that every effort is being made to prevent harms and ensure that technology is being used in a socially responsible way.

We will continue to operate as a Committee in a very transparent fashion and we welcome public views. We have to be dynamic given the nature of the technology with which we are dealing. Trust is a critical part of this process. Our work to date has that at its core.

Malcolm Byrne is Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Fianna Fáil’s Spokesperson on Climate, Environment and Energy and a TD for Wicklow-Wexford.