I must say to the Minister as Minister for foreign affairs it is an appalling situation that on the one hand, Ireland goes into the EU Council of Foreign Ministers to advocate for the cause of Palestinians and yet here at home adopts a mean spirited and hypocritical approach with regard to refusing so many Palestinian students visas. There is a 70% refusal rate this year. It was only 15% last year.

My specific question relates to the EU Digital Omnibus package, Ireland’s position and the Minister’s role in that. Effectively, the direction of travel is to loosen the protections in the AI Act. Last week, alarm bells were sounded by the developers of AI. AI has enormous potential for positive impact, particularly in the area of health, but we know for workers, consumers, for our security and democracy there are particularly terrifying prospects. What is the Minister doing to ensure that we have much better AI regulation in the European Union and that we are not going to diminish the existing standards and protections there already?

The Digital Omnibus package is one of perhaps 12 pieces of legislation we are bringing forward at the moment under the simplification objective we have during the Presidency. I want to dispel the myth that might be out there that changing legislation in some way weakens or loosens it a bit. The whole objective is to make it more straightforward and simplify it where we can while, at the same time, protecting people’s rights and making those responsible and accountable for protecting consumers too. Like the Deputy and everyone here, I am also concerned at the pace and speed at which AI is moving. We need to make sure that in the EU, the appropriate regulations and rules are in place but that we also do not stifle growth and innovation. We need to make sure we are embracing and enhancing our day-to-day lives with the technology as it is evolving. We also need to monitor and manage it. What you will see during the Presidency is Ireland taking a very central approach and making sure we get the balance right. We are not trying to have fewer rules; we are trying to make sure they are better and that we can apply them better as well.