This morning I published my first Bill to establish the national AI office, oifig náisiúnta na aintleachta saorga. As part of the EU's AI Act, every member state is required to produce a regulator in the state. The idea behind this particular office is that it would act both as a regulator and an enabler for SMEs and for State entities.

I have spoken with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, about this. I submitted the Bill to the public Bills Office today. I ask that it is given a fair hearing. We are required under the EU AI Act to set up a regulator and there would be an independent commissioner running that, similar to the Data Protection Commissioner and Coimisiún na Meán.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and congratulate him on publishing his first legislation so soon into the term of this Dáil. He is quite right that this is a huge area. We have seen many companies such as JP Morgan and Ford make significant comments over the last week about job displacement and the type of new jobs that will be created. There is a live debate around regulation. We discussed the issue of AI at our competitiveness summit this week. We have a dedicated Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth, who is doing an excellent job in this area. I have no doubt she will give consideration to Deputy Ó Cearúil's Bill and the Government will give it due and fair consideration also.