The AI Office of Ireland will be a new statutory independent body under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
The General Scheme of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 was approved at the Government meeting of 13th January 2026. The guiding principles are that the AI Office of Ireland must be independent in structure in order to oversee the governance and coordination of the national rollout and ongoing supervision and enforcement of the EU AI Act, ensuring that all relevant authorities and stakeholders are aligned in their interpretation and application of the Regulation.
The Government has provided €1.5 million for the start-up phase of the AI Office of Ireland and the distributed model that Ireland has adopted, leverages the significant array of resources and capabilities provided by existing sectoral regulators. Supervision and enforcement provisions under the EU AI Act will only come into effect in August 2026. As the system comes into effect and gains further insights into the level of regulatory activity required in practice, any associated costs to facilitate this should be subject to discussion as part of the annual estimates process for all subsequent years.
In line with the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity and the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce Report, the AI Office will engage with the Digital Regulators Group, while fully respecting the statutory independence of the DRG’s constituent members, to encourage an approach that enables innovation and competitiveness. This will encourage exploration of options to streamline digital regulatory processes, help to develop guidance to support compliance with the AI Act and ensure that the process for levy funding arising from national legislation and EU digital regulatory frameworks is clear and transparent, as appropriate.
As a regulatory Centre of Excellence, the Government is committed to ensuring a modern, cohesive and well-resourced regulatory framework that is responsive to the evolving digital age.
