Ireland to set up dedicated AI-at-work forum, Taoiseach announces
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Fórsa biennial conference in May that the Irish government will propose a dedicated forum to examine the impact of AI on Irish workplaces. The forum will sit alongside expanded social dialogue via the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF), which was reactivated in 2024 after a period of dormancy. The announcement comes as the public sector pay deal expires at the end of June, with Fórsa warning industrial action remains on the table without a negotiated successor agreement.
Why this matters
A dedicated AI-at-work forum signals Ireland intends to develop a national position on AI in the workplace rather than leave it to individual employer-by-employer negotiation. For Irish remote workers, freelancers, and hybrid employees who are increasingly being asked to adopt AI tools as part of their daily workflow, the existence of a tripartite forum (government, unions, employers) means there’s a likely route for collectively-negotiated guardrails – on monitoring, on productivity expectations, on AI-driven performance management – rather than leaving these decisions to individual employment contracts.
Context
Ireland sits between two policy poles on AI-at-work. The EU AI Act provides a regulatory floor across the bloc, but member states are responsible for transposition and enforcement. Ireland has historically taken a relatively employer-friendly stance on workplace technology adoption, given the heavy presence of US tech multinationals. A dedicated forum tilts the conversation slightly back towards worker voice – particularly relevant given the Fórsa research published the same week showing significant equity gaps in remote-work flexibility by income level.
What to watch: When the AI forum’s terms of reference are published, who is invited to the table (which unions, which employer bodies, which civil society voices), and whether the public sector pay negotiations link AI-at-work commitments to the next agreement.