IrelandRegulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026
Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026 (No. 31 of 2026)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force 54 days, effective 31 July 2026.
An AI governance rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Comply with information requests, contravention notices and prohibition notices issued by an authorised officer of a relevant market surveillance authority in respect of an AI system you provide or deploy (Part 5).
- An administrative fine imposed on a public body for an AI Act breach is capped at EUR 1,000,000 regardless of the Article 99 tier that would otherwise apply; a fine on any other person or undertaking instead follows the EU AI Act's own Article 99 tiers (s. 105(2)-(5)).
- Do not knowingly give false or misleading information to an adjudicator, or disclose confidential material relevant to an adjudicator's finding without authorisation (ss. 95, 104).
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Offences under ss. 36(3), 64(3), 70(10), 75(4), 89(3)(b), 95, 98(3) or 104(2): on summary conviction, a class A fine or imprisonment up to 12 months, or both; on conviction on indictment, a fine not exceeding EUR 250,000 or imprisonment up to 5 years, or both. Offences under ss. 54(2) or 89(3)(a): on summary conviction, a class A fine or imprisonment up to 6 months, or both; on indictment, a fine not exceeding EUR 50,000 or imprisonment up to 5 years, or both. Offences under ss. 58(3), 71(10) or 72(12): summary conviction only, a class A fine or imprisonment up to 6 months, or both (s. 121(1)-(3)).
Penalty structure
This EUR 1,000,000 cap applies only where an adjudicator imposes an administrative fine on a public body within the meaning of section 10 of the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 (s. 105(5)(a)). A fine on any other person or undertaking instead follows the tiers the EU AI Act's own Article 99 sets, which this Act's section 105(2)-(4) and (5)(b) cross-refers to without restating; those Article 99 amounts are the eu jurisdiction's finding, not this instrument's.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 1,000,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Oifig IS na hÉireann (AI Office of Ireland) and the market surveillance authorities designated for the AI Act, acting through this Act's authorised-officer and adjudicator scheme.
Enforcement record
Oifig IS na hÉireann (the AI Office of Ireland) has published no enforcement action, investigation, contravention notice, prohibition notice, forfeiture order or adjudicator determination under this Act since the Act came into operation on 2026-07-31. The Office's own news and updates page, covering the whole of its existence from its establishment on 30 July 2026 through its most recent entry of 28 August 2026, lists four items: its own establishment, the appointment of its Chief Executive Officer, the appointment of its Board, and the European Commission's transparency-obligation guidelines; none is an enforcement matter. The Office's publications page lists only national AI strategy and standards documents, with nothing about a case or a decision under this Act. actions_per_year of 0 covers the period from the Act's commencement (2026-07-31) through 2026-09-17.
- As of
- 17 September 2026
- Source link
- https://aioffice.gov.ie/news-and-updates/
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
Logging duty
Section 70 empowers an authorised officer to enter and search premises where records relating to a relevant AI product are kept, to secure such records for later inspection, and to require a person able to facilitate access to records stored on data equipment to give all reasonable assistance, including by providing the records in a form that is legible and comprehensible and by giving any password needed to read them. The section names records directly, but its own text is an access and production power over whatever a party already holds; it does not itself say what a regulated party must create or how long a record must be kept, and obstructing or failing to comply with a request under it is an offence under s. 70(9)-(10).
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- 22 September 2026
- Provision
- s. 70(1)(a)(ii), (b)(ii), (c) and (2)
- Trigger
- all_systems
Who checks it
Audit expectation
on_request
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
This Act establishes Oifig IS na hÉireann as an independent statutory body, with its own Board and Chief Executive Officer, to give further effect to the EU AI Act in Ireland. Part 3 gives the Office the single-point-of-contact and AI register functions and creates an AI regulatory sandbox and a real-world testing regime for high-risk AI systems.
Part 4 sets general obligations on the relevant market surveillance authorities designated for the AI Act, including derogation, incident-reporting and complaints-handling duties. Parts 5 and 6 build a full supervision, adjudication and administrative-fines architecture: authorised officers may issue contravention notices, prohibition notices and forfeiture orders, and an independent adjudicator determines whether an AI Act breach occurred and what administrative fine, if any, to impose.
An administrative fine otherwise follows the ceiling the AI Act's own Article 99 sets for the type of breach, except that a fine imposed on a public body is capped at EUR 1,000,000 regardless of which Article 99 tier would otherwise apply.
Part 7 creates criminal offences, including for unauthorised disclosure of confidential information, obstructing or giving false information to an authorised officer or adjudicator, and disclosing material relevant to an adjudicator's finding without authorisation.
Parts 8 to 10 amend the Central Bank Act 1942 to give the Central Bank AI Act administrative-sanctioning powers, and make further amendments to the Communications Regulation Act 2002, the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 and the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
When LexLint raises it
high_risk_decisionsprocesses_biometricsgenerates_contentdeploys_chatbot
Read the law
Irish Statute Book, official text of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.