{"id":692633,"date":"2026-01-13T06:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692633\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T06:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:25:16","slug":"eu-regulations-on-ai-and-plans-for-limited-data-centre-development-to-go-to-cabinet-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692633\/","title":{"rendered":"EU regulations on AI and plans for limited data centre development to go to Cabinet \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech giants could face large penalties for violations of European Union<\/a> regulations related to artificial intelligence<\/a> \u2013 under proposed legislation due to go to Cabinet on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke<\/a> is expected to seek approval for legislation that would transpose the EU\u2019s AI Act into Irish law. <\/p>\n

The EU Act grades forms of AI use by risk and includes penalties fines for large tech companies of up to \u20ac35 million or 7 per cent of global annual turnover \u2013 whichever is higher \u2013 depending on the nature of the violation. <\/p>\n

According to the Department of Enterprise<\/a> website the EU AI Act is designed to protect people\u2019s health, safety and fundamental rights and to promote the adoption of human-centric, trustworthy AI.<\/p>\n

Uses of AI deemed by the EU to pose \u201cunacceptable risks\u201d include any that exploiting vulnerabilities due to age, disability or economic situation or profiles individuals for prediction of criminal activity. <\/p>\n

Separately, Mr Burke is to brief colleagues on a plan aimed at sustainable data centre<\/a> development in Ireland. <\/p>\n

There have been environmental concerns over data centres which use vast quantities of electricity and restrictions were put on new data centres in recent years due to the pressure on the grid.<\/p>\n

The Large Energy User Action Plan \u2013 to be published after Cabinet by Mr Burke and Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> \u2013 is a 17-point strategy detailing a growth path for the industry in the short to medium term.<\/p>\n

The plan provides for \u201climited development\u201d of data centres and other energy-intensive industrial facilities in places where there is generation capacity though the companies must co-locate development with renewable energy<\/a> resources.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> is to seek Cabinet approval for increased State funding for the post office network of \u20ac15 million annually over the next five years. <\/p>\n

The funding to An Post<\/a> for the network had stood at \u20ac10 million annually between 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The proposed enhanced funding is in line with the findings of an Irish Postmasters Union report from May 2025 report suggesting there is a need for the funding to increase to \u20ac15 million per year to safeguard the network. <\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> is to seek Government<\/a> approval for the text and amendments to the International Protection Bill which will overhaul the State\u2019s asylum system in advance of EU-wide rules coming into force in June.<\/p>\n

Last November, the Government signalled it would tighten rules around family reunification for people with refugee status, restricting the ability to bring relatives into the State if refugees were not financially self-sufficient or owed a debt to the State.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan is expected to tell the Cabinet of further restrictions: a general waiting period of three years for adult refugees before they can seek family reunification, which will also apply to immediate family members.<\/p>\n

Minister for Higher Education James Lawless<\/a> is to update the Cabinet on a report about delivering infrastructure including addressing construction skills and workforce shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tech giants could face large penalties for violations of European Union regulations related to artificial intelligence \u2013 under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,679],"class_list":{"0":"post-692633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-irish-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115886366537011021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}