The Irish Times view on AI and Ireland: the future will not wait
There are reasons both for cautious optimism and concern. Ireland has long positioned itself as a European technology hub, hosting the headquarters of many of the world's leading tech firms. Government agencies are actively courting AI investment. Research centres in Irish universities are leaders in developing cutting-edge AI applications. The recent launch of an AI Skills programme by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment signals a growing recognition of the need to upskill the workforce. But the evidence of the last decade also suggests that Irish regulators struggle to come to terms with the challenges posed by US tech companies which are not slow to wield their considerable political influence.
The establishment of an Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which met for the first time this week, marks a step in deepening political and legislative engagement with the issue. The committee has the potential to initiate a broader public and legislative debate on AI policy that balances innovation with the safeguarding of democratic values and public interest. But for this to succeed, it will need to act in constructive coordination with education, enterprise and civil society.
Because readiness is about more than strategy documents, it must reach into the heart of how we educate, train, and govern. Schools, for example, are already grappling with how to prepare students for a new world in which traditional educational metrics are no longer credible. The reformed Leaving Certificate, with its increased emphasis on project work, now faces an unexpected challenge: how to assess students fairly in a world where generative AI can produce plausible essays and design projects at the click of a button.
READ MORE
Equally urgent are the labour market implications. AI is set to displace roles in sectors ranging from transport and customer support to software development and legal services. Without a serious, joined-up national response, Ireland could face widening inequality, social dislocation and a growing digital divide.
Nimble policymaking and innovative thinking are imperative. But this moment also requires political will and public investment. AI is not just a technological leap. It is a societal transformation. If Ireland is to thrive in this new age, it must act with speed, coherence and purpose. The future will not wait.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
24 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Taxpayer expected to make €2m profit from developing a site for housing but instead was left with €61,000 tax bill
A taxpayer who said that he once expected to make a profit of €2 million from building and 'flipping' a few houses to 'big spenders' on a 4.5 acre site has been left with a tax bill of €61,281. This follows the failure of his appeal at the Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) against a Revenue assessment for that amount. The man purchased the site for €330,000 funded by way of a loan in 2005 and claimed trading losses of €168,120 from 2008 to 2015. However, Revenue disallowed the losses after concluding that the man was not carrying on any trade to qualify for such losses. Appeals Commissioner Simon Noone upheld the Revenue assessment. READ MORE In his findings, Mr Noone concluded that 'the appellant's claim for trading losses on his income tax returns was based on the incorrect and inaccurate basis that he had been engaged in trade'. [ Farmer loses Revenue appeal over €351,545 capital gains tax bill Opens in new window ] In evidence at the TAC, the man said he purchased the site with a view to building and 'flipping' a few houses. At the TAC hearing, he said that he believed it would be attractive to 'big spenders' and he anticipated achieving a €500,000 profit on the first house, which would enable him to build the second, and so on and he expected total profit of around €2 million. He said that there was a good chance of three to five houses, with a possibility of more. The appellant stated that he did not buy the site to build a house for himself and stated that the current status of the site was that 'it's still there'. He did not register for VAT because 'I figured nothing had happened yet'. When it was put to the appellant at the hearing that he abandoned his plans in 2007 to develop the land, he stated that 'the plans abandoned me…the environment changed,' referring to the property crash. Mr Noone found that the evidence suggested a distinct lack of urgency on the part of the appellant to progress the development of the site. He said that he was satisfied that the appellant never intended to engage in the trade of land development. Mr Noone said that prior to 2005, the appellant had no experience in land development, did not obtain funding to build the homes, never applied for planning permission for the homes and the land remains zoned as agricultural.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Pizza chain Bambino gets green light for outdoor tables at Merrion Street outlet
Popular pizza chain Bambino has been granted permission to have three outdoor tables outside one of its locations in Dublin, after An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) overturned the local authority's refusal of the application. Dublin City Council refused a retention permission application for four outdoor high dining tables, which can be seen outside the pizza chain's Merrion Street location in March 2025. The chain originally sought a street furniture licence but was informed that as the furniture was to be placed on private land, that it would fall under the planning department. The council said the four requested tables would 'endanger public safety by reason of traffic hazard, or obstruction of road users on the public footpath' and would also set an 'undesirable precedent, for similar development across the city'. READ MORE It further noted that the four tables would have a 'significant adverse visual impact, causing serious injury to the special architectural character and setting' of the protected structure in which the pizza restaurant is located as well as the surrounding 'historic streetscape'. The refusal was appealed to the commission in April, with Bambino indicating a willingness to change the proposed colour of the tables or reduce the requested number from four to three. The commission's inspector noted that the tables were set to be located on private land off the public footpath, and concluded the patrons would 'not block or restrict the footpath'. A limit on the number of tables, three, and their height and size has been has been put in place. Known for quick, New York-style pizza, Bambino has two locations with its main site being located on Stephen Street Lower, which recorded a €469,827 in profit in 2024, an increase on €26,115 in the year prior. Directors' remuneration stood at €119,911 at the company founded by Nicholas DiMaio, and Shane Windrim.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Why would 35-year-old CEO Gareth Sheridan want to be entombed in the Áras for seven years?
You can probably name the big May 2015 referendum, the one about same-sex marriage. Now name the second proposal put to voters that day. It was the effort to reduce the presidential candidacy age from 35 to 21. Even two months out, seven in 10 were against it. More than half the youth group it was targeting were against it. In the end nearly three-quarters of the people voted No. As crazily time-wasting notions go, it could have been worse. Nearly 20 years beforehand, an Oireachtas joint committee had recommended a reduction to age 18. In 1937, Éamon de Valera referred to the president's role and powers as requiring 'the exercise of a wise discretion'. Surely only an insufferably self-important little twerp would deem themselves qualified at 21? It's also true, as Yes advocates were wont to argue, that the age barrier would have rendered Jesus Christ and Michael Collins (dead at 33 and 31) ineligible for the job, but why on earth would such busy, transformative young men have wanted it anyway? READ MORE The same question could be asked of Gareth Sheridan . Why would the 35-year-old co-founder and chief executive of an $80 million Nasdaq -listed company about to hit serious paydirt – Nutriband – want to be entombed for seven years in the diplomatic fustiness of the Áras ? His first outing post-announcement on Sunday was to Tullamore Agricultural Show, where there was a team and badges in evidence but little gladhanding by all accounts. It might have been just a practice run. Like every serious US presidential candidate, Sheridan has a book nicely timed for campaign season. From No to Nasdaq is the autobiography of a Terenure teenager who paints houses to buy a Nokia 3310, a TUD business and management student who spots a gap in the market (patch treatments for delivering medications and pain relief), emigrates to the US and drives an Uber to pay the bills while his wife works as a nanny to snitty rich kids, all while gaining US citizenship, dodging Wall Street sharks, being sued by US Securities and Exchange Commission regulators, and getting listed. He remains in the bottom five per cent of executives on the Nasdaq in terms of compensation – and that's how it should be, he told Hot Press in an pre-announcement interview last week, 'because we're not quite ready. Next year when we get FDA approval, we can see what the company is in a position to spend and afford'. That's when the company's first big product, an abuse-deterrent technology with the FDA-approved fentanyl patch, will be rolled out. The company he co-founded and leads is in big expansion mode and on track to become a billion-dollar business. [ Gareth Sheridan's presidential nomination is by no means certain Opens in new window ] In the context of Sheridan's presidential ambitions announced elsewhere just a few days later, that's the puzzling part. All this excitement – including his goal 'to put manners' on US Big Pharma – is due to unfold during his intended presidential term. Yet at 35, and after seven years in the US, he has chosen to step aside as chief executive to seek a seven-year sentence as Ireland's ceremonial president. There is a manifesto of sorts which so far resembles a Dáil hopeful's manifesto, focused 'on the pragmatic politics' of our old friend, 'common sense'. He had become obsessed, he said, 'with how we can fix this housing issue', and had been meeting lots of people who happened to include lots of county councillors. 'The system is broken. It's part and parcel of successive governments and their lack of foresight and preparation ... I've met with councillors and their frustration level is crazy,' Sheridan said. A couple of them flatteringly asked if he would put housing at the top of the narrative and have a crack at the Áras, he told Hot Press. From which he inferred that it was time for a younger candidate 'to keep these issues on top of the narrative'. And – as he says repeatedly – he's young. No-one could argue with the need to light a fire under housing policy, but this implies, a) that it hasn't dominated every national and local narrative to death for years and, b) that President Michael D Higgins could have tried a bit harder. That forceful, emotional speech three years ago – when Higgins described housing as 'a disaster' and 'our great, great, great failure' – notwithstanding, probably. Sheridan uses the word 'figurehead' for the job so is clearly aware of the limitations. Yet he has been working at it 'for well over a year', finding the time for face-to-face schmoozing with councillors crucial to his nomination. Which means he was dabbling deep in Irish politics well before last November's general election, with time enough to pack all that effort into a run for the Dáil and possible ministerial office from which to wield the fix of real executive power. There is the puzzle. [ 'Don't underestimate this guy': Who is Gareth Sheridan, the pharma millionaire running for president? Opens in new window ] The other question is why the Irish electorate would vote for a relatively unknown businessman to be its North Star. The 2011 candidacy of businessman Seán Gallagher – who almost made it to the Áras as an Independent until his campaign imploded on live TV – resonated because the economy was in ruins, leaving a gaping wound in the national psyche. Gallagher offered a fix, focusing on entrepreneurship and self-reliance. It wasn't poetry but it was a sorely needed dose of positivity. Since Gallagher served as Nutriband president for four years from 2018 to 2022, it's hardly a stretch to think that Sheridan might have at least noted Gallagher's nomination tactics, not to mention his business pitch, as a template when he says things like, 'We need to start looking forward. That's a mentality thing that needs to change.' But Sheridan has been remarkably adamant that he got no advice from Gallagher and told RTÉ that they 'parted ways ... after a year or two'. An advantage of being young is that there are fewer skeletons to fall out of the cupboard. Gareth Sheridan's candidacy will reveal as much about this Ireland as about the man himself. It will get interesting.
