I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for this important, timely motion. I want to tell the story of Christina from Clare. Christina is an artist and like so many artists across this island, she spent countless hours creating work. She poured her talent, experience, emotions and imagination into it. Christina reflected something uniquely human in that, plus it was hers. Without her consent or permission, that work was taken and fed into an AI system. That system processed it, altered it and reshaped it to fit the image it was generating. The finished product no longer reflected Christina's vision. It reflected the priorities of an algorithm. For Christina, this was deeply hurtful, not because the technology exists, but because her creativity was treated as a resource to be harvested, rather than a work to be expected. Christina's story is not unique. As an artist in wool myself, I am lucky that this AI cannot take my creativity and use it. I feel extremely lucky about that every day but across Ireland, artists, photographers, writers, and musicians are seeing their work taken without consent and used to train generative AI systems. Their intellectual property is being treated as free raw material for powerful technology companies. At the same time, generative AI raises serious concerns about copyright infringement, increased carbon emissions, misinformation and the loss of creative jobs. The danger is that we become so exposed to AI-generated content that we begin to normalise it and that we begin to see art created in seconds and then ask why we need artists at all. That art is not simply the final image. Art is a lived experience, a culture, and a memory. It is joy, grief, struggle and hope all captured through a uniquely human lens. AI can imitate styles and remix existing works but it cannot replicate human experience that gives art its meaning. Too often, AI-generated images have the same familiar look, and that same polished uniformity. They lack the personal, the imperfections and the authenticity that makes real art powerful. There is a worrying lack of public awareness about the impact this technology is having on livelihoods. Behind each piece is an artist trying to earn a living from his or her craft. Artists should be treated fairly. Ireland is known as the land of saints and scholars. We are a nation that treasures storytelling, music, poetry, and creativity, and if we fail to protect our artists, we risk becoming a land of saints and robots, where human creativity is pushed to the margins. Not all AI is bad and not everyone who is using it is acting in bad faith but the technology must serve the people, not replace it. Innovation must not come at the expense of consent or copyright. We must ensure that the creative work of Irish people is respected, protected, and valued in the age of AI. We stand with our Irish artists and we must make sure that while this motion will be passed, it is continued, worked on, and that actions are taken on it.

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