Given the scale of the claims being made for artificial intelligence, it is striking how slow the Oireachtas has been to give the subject sustained attention. AI is routinely described as having the potential to transform society, disrupt the global political order and even alter what it means to be human. Yet it was only this year that the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence began its work, holding its first public session in June.
This week its chair, Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne, set out his thinking on what must happen next. Byrne believes Ireland could position itself as “the AI island” but warns that the opportunity will be lost without swift and decisive action. He says he would be disappointed if both a new AI office and an AI observatory are not operational by next year. The office will be tasked with implementing the EU’s AI Act, while the observatory will assess the technology’s effects, from employment disruption to identifying future skills needs.
In Byrne’s view, those who embrace AI will displace those who do not, whether they are doctors, architects or lawyers. He welcomes the Government’s plan for an AI summit during Ireland’s EU presidency in 2026 and argues for clear ethical frameworks in education, where students are already using AI tools. He also points to the technology’s current uses in Ireland, from automating recycling processes to analysing tax data.
Such calls for urgency are sensible and overdue. But preparing the State for the changes ahead will require far more than offices, observatories and summits. The debate is complicated by the sweeping and often speculative claims surrounding AI, from the elimination of entire job categories to science-fiction visions of superintelligent machines destroying the human race. This discourse is unfolding against the backdrop of a global investment surge, with leading AI companies commanding extraordinary valuations and data centres proliferating at breakneck speed. History suggests such frenzies rarely end without turbulence.
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Byrne’s proposals are shaped by the EU’s AI Act, which will impose a detailed regulatory roadmap over the coming years. That approach contrasts sharply with the let it rip stance favoured by Donald Trump’s administration in the US, and with the UK’s less prescriptive, more innovation-oriented strategy. Which philosophy will prove more effective is an open question but the divergence will have real consequences for competitiveness.
If Ireland is serious about becoming “the AI island”, it must reckon with the reality that others are moving faster and with considerable resources. Ambition is necessary, but so too is a clear-eyed appraisal of the scale of the challenge and the pace of change. Without that, the island will be an observer, not a leader, in the age of AI.
