Artificial Intelligence · Ireland
Artificial Intelligence - Ireland
As an EU member state, Ireland is governed by the directly-applicable EU AI Act, a comprehensive, risk-based AI law whose prohibited-practice and AI-literacy rules apply from 2 February 2025 and whose GPAI/high-risk obligations phase in through 2026-2027. Ireland has chosen a distributed enforcement model: in September 2025 it designated 15 existing sectoral regulators as national competent authorities plus a single point of contact, and is legislating (General Scheme published February 2026) to create a statutory, independent AI Office of Ireland as central coordinating authority by August 2026.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 applies directly in Ireland as a comprehensive, risk-tiered law; bans on unacceptable-risk uses and AI-literacy duties took effect 2 February 2025, with most high-risk and general-purpose AI obligations applying from August 2025 onward.
By Government decisions of 4 March and 22 July 2025, Ireland opted to leverage existing sectoral regulators rather than one new super-regulator; in September 2025 it designated 15 national competent authorities including the Central Bank, Data Protection Commission, Coimisiún na Meán, ComReg, CCPC, HSA and HPRA, plus a single point of contact in the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.
The General Scheme of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 proposes a new statutory independent body, Oifig Intleachta Shaorga na hÉireann / AI Office of Ireland, to act as central coordinating authority and single point of contact, targeted for establishment by August 2026; the Bill is at pre-legislative (general scheme) stage.
Ireland's national AI policy, first launched July 2021 and refreshed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on 6 November 2024, sets seven strands including governance for trustworthy AI, leading on EU AI Act implementation, and establishing an AI regulatory sandbox.
The Data Protection Commission remains lead authority for AI systems processing personal data and is among the bodies enforcing certain prohibited practices; the 2026 Bill confirms AI obligations apply in addition to GDPR, preserving the DPC's role over privacy and algorithmic-bias risks.
Per the EU AI Act applicable in Ireland, practices banned since February 2025 include social scoring, untargeted scraping of facial images, emotion recognition in workplaces and schools, manipulative or vulnerability-exploiting systems, and most real-time remote biometric identification by law enforcement.
Machine-assisted translation · verified 5/23/2026 · orientation, not legal advice. English version →