I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 17 together.
The Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum was established in May 2022 and includes representatives of indigenous and multinational companies, as well as experts in digital technologies and their adoption.
The Forum assists the Government in driving the digitalisation of enterprise across Ireland and in the implementation of the enterprise aspects of National Digital Strategy. It provides an important setting for enterprise to be able to provide feedback to Government on various challenges and opportunities they identify in relation to digitalisation and technology adoption. This information can then be shared across Government using the structures provided for in the National Digital Strategy.
The Forum has no role in relation to the Artificial Intelligence Act or the Platform Workers Directive.
In relation to the AI Act, the proposed Act, which is currently being negotiated at EU level, sets out harmonised rules for the development, placement on the market and use of AI systems in the EU. It takes a risk-based approach where certain particularly harmful AI practices are prohibited as contravening Union values, while specific restrictions and safeguards are proposed in relation to certain high-risk areas. High risk systems include those that pose a risk to the health and safety of an individual or impacts on their fundamental rights. This includes areas of employment, workers management and access to self-employment particularly in the area of recruitment and selection and AI systems used to make decisions on promotion and termination of work-related contractual relationships and to monitor and evaluate performance and behaviour in persons in such relationships.
A clear governance structure is being proposed in the AI Act to ensure that the compliance requirements of the Act are met at Member State level. A notifying authority will be established which will be responsible for setting up and carrying out the necessary procedures for the assessment, designation and notification of conformity assessment bodies and for their monitoring to ensure such compliance.
It is expected that the AI Act will be adopted in early 2024 and the Notifying Body will be in place 12 months from the enforcement date. My Department is currently considering the most appropriate location of the AI Notifying Body and is consulting with stakeholders on this issue as part of their ongoing consultation on the AI Act.
Regarding the Platform Workers Directive, this Directive it is intended to improve working conditions in Platform work. In doing so, the proposal’s ambition is to ensure that Member States have in place mechanisms whereby a question on the correct employment status of a person can be determined. The proposal is not intending to remove genuinely self-employed persons from the sector. In a more specific way, the proposal also intends to enhance existing GDPR protections for all persons engaged in platform work. The sector is clearly defined and is narrower in scope than the use of digital technologies in business in a more general way. Ireland supports the proposal and has consistently sought for clarity and legal certainty in the way it is drafted. Ireland already has mechanisms for the determination of employment status.
