Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2026
69. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to outline his Department's assessment of the regulatory, technical, and enforcement capacities required for Ireland to fully implement the EU AI Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35520/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is an EU regulation which entered into force on 2 August 2024 and is directly applicable across the EU. The regulation applies in a phased manner over 36 months from entry into force.
The regulation is designed to provide a high level of protection to people’s health, safety and fundamental rights, and to promote the adoption of human-centric, trustworthy AI. It will provide a harmonised regulatory framework for AI systems placed on the market, or deployed, in the EU.
The AI Act required Member States to report, by 2 August 2025, on the status of the financial and human resource capacity of national competent authorities. This reporting must be completed every two years. Ireland submitted the first required report last August following consultation with the competent authorities and relevant Government departments, through the National AI Act Implementation Committee.
A new AI Office of Ireland will be established as a central and coordinating authority for the implementation of the AI Act in Ireland. It will provide a focal point for the promotion and adoption of transparent and safe AI in Ireland, to ensure that we fully capture the strategic opportunity that AI presents. Budget 2026 secured €1.5 million in start-up funding to establish the AI Office of Ireland by 2 August 2026.
Ireland will adopt a distributed model of implementation of the EU AI Act, building on the capacity and expertise of established sectoral regulators. Ireland’s decision to utilise a distributed model of existing sectoral regulators means Ireland is well placed to leverage existing experienced and established resources and operations in the first instance and then build on that robust and effective capacity as needed for subsequent years, in line with the AI Act's staggered timeline of enforcement.
As part of the estimates process, work is ongoing by the national competent authorities and their respective Departments to determine the appropriate level of financial resourcing required to ensure the effective fulfilment of Ireland’s obligations from the enforcement commencement date.
The AI Office of Ireland will act as the central coordinating authority for the implementation of the AI Act in the State, ensuring that all relevant authorities and stakeholders are aligned in their interpretation and application of the Regulation. While the Office will help facilitate coordination among regulators, the enforcement of the AI Act will remain the responsibility of the designated sectoral regulators. However, the Office will host a centralised pool of technical expertise in AI technologies as well as legal and regulatory affairs providing MSAs and other authorities with access to a framework of expertise to support them in fulfilling their mandates.
With regard to enforcement capacity, the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Non-Personal Data Bill, will address supervision and enforcement, providing for market surveillance authorities to appoint authorised officers with robust investigatory powers, and will establish an administrative sanctions regime, enabling the imposition of penalties in accordance with the AI Act.
On 19 November 2025, the European Commission published a Digital Package aimed at helping EU businesses to innovate, scale and reduce administrative burdens by simplifying and strengthening digital rules. The Digital Omnibus included the Digital Omnibus on AI (Regulation): covering targeted amendments to the Artificial Intelligence Act to address practical implementation challenges identified by stakeholders.
On 7 May 2026, the presidency of the Council of the European Union and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Omnibus on AI proposal. The provisional agreement introduces a fixed timeline for the delayed application of high-risk rules: the new application dates would be 2 December 2027 for stand-alone high-risk AI systems and 2 August 2028 for high-risk AI systems embedded in products. If formally adopted, this will provide both businesses and regulators more time to prepare to meet their obligations and for the supervision of certain aspects of AI systems.
The Government is fully committed to the comprehensive and timely implementation of all aspects of the AI Act, including the designation of competent authorities with the necessary regulatory, technical and enforcement capacities, the establishment of the AI Office of Ireland on a statutory basis, and Ireland’s national implementation, with whole-of-Government collaboration, is progressing to that end.
