Publication of the General Scheme on the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026

The EU AI Act is now the world’s most market-access oriented AI law. It regulates AI the way the EU regulates product safety – through defined risk categories, pre-market obligations, and cross-border enforcement.  It will act as setting a global standard for safe AI consistent with the Commission’s objectives to be the golden standard for safe AI deployment, allowing for safe deployment at scale building trust in a safe deployment zone.  The rationale behind the Regulation is that capital allocation will increase in the EU with lower risk deployment into insurers, pension funds, sovereign funds and public buyers.

The challenge for US technology companies, in particular, is to shift from selling their products on privacy and security (GDPR/NIS2) to product and compliance engineering.  While it is undoubtedly a market hurdle, it is not, as has been suggested, a protectionist wall designed to stifle innovation. It will operate both as a compliance and governance regime and is jurisdictionally neutral.

In the latest development in relation to the implementation of the AI Act in Ireland the Department of Enterprise Tourism and Employment has today published the General Scheme of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 (the “Bill”).

The Bill is required for the full implementation in Ireland of the EU AI Act and further solidifies Ireland’s intention to operate a federated / distributed model of regulation drawing upon the experience of existing sectoral regulators under the oversight and guidance a new national AI Office. 

The Bill provides for the establishment of the Oifig IS na hÉireann / AI Office of Ireland as a statutory body under the Act with its functions set out as: 

• Facilitate, in cooperation with the competent authorities, the consistent enforcement of the AI Act. 
• Enable cooperation between the competent authorities designated under the AI Regulation; 
• Promote AI innovation and adoption and foster AI literacy; 
• Facilitate access to technical expertise for Competent Authorities 
  
  

The Bill proposes to designate the Office both as a Market Surveillance Authority for the purposes of article 70(1) of the EU AI Act and as the Single Point of Contact responsible for acting as a central co-ordinator, facilitator and advice-giver. The AI Office will be lead by a Chief Executive Officer who will report to an independent Board of 7 members. 

The AI Office will establish and maintain a National Register containing all instances of prohibited AI practices (article 5), a list of all Annex III High Risk AI Systems and any other AI-related cases or notifications required to be recorded under EU Law and also provides for the establishment, by the AI Office in conjunction with other market surveillance authorities, of national regulatory sandboxes (which are testing environments) and for the participation in EU-level regulatory sandboxes. The development of AI sandboxes is seen as crucial for the development of safe and effective AI by enabling developers to experiment in controlled environments prior to bringing their system to market. This is of particular benefit to SMEs who are afforded prioritisation under both the EU AI Act and this proposed domestic legislation.

The Bill will also officially designate further Market Surveillance Authorities (“MSA”) who, while previously named, were not formally designated as such. The Bill adds further clarity as to how MSAs will operate and their relationship with each other and the AI Office as well as the various enforcement tools that will be at their disposal. Significantly, Head 57, which relates to penalties for non-compliance, provides that MSAs will be required to apply to the High Court for an order directing immediate compliance. Similarly, Head 89 provides that where an adjudicator has imposed an administrative sanction upon an entity for a breach of the legislation, this will take affect only upon confirmation by the High Court ensuring a checks and balances approach to the regulation of AI in Ireland.  

One aspect that remains uncertain is to what to what extent the Heads of Bill will be affected by the recent Digital Omnibus Proposals (link to our article). This is the EU’s streamlining arrangements for GDPR, the Digital Services Act, the Digital markets Act and NIS2.The Annex to the Heads of Bill notes that: “The Digital Omnibus will continue to inform the progression of the implementation of the AI Act nationally. The establishment of the AI Office of Ireland and powers of national Competent Authorities must still be enacted in time for 2 August 2026 to fulfil the deadlines set out in the AI Act.”  It further outlines that should amendments be required once the proposals are agreed at EU level the Government will consider this. Watch this space.

For more information, please contact the authors Jon Legorburu or Ben Grogan from the Regulation team at Byrne Wallace Shields LLP.