The Minister for Enterprise must meet with the Oireachtas AI Committee to discuss what regulations are needed to prevent mass unemployment as a result of AI, according to Social Democrats enterprise spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gibney, who sits on the Oireachtas AI Committee, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta has informed the Government that it plans to lay off 10% of its employees.\u00a0 There are 1,800 Meta staff here, 40% fewer than three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach round of cuts has come with weaker and weaker protection of workers rights. This is affecting all category of workers in Meta, including those in direct employment and contractors like Covalen workers<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta has just reported record quarterly profits of $26 billion, or $1 billion every three days, yet it still plans to make around 350 of its staff here unemployed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese mass layoffs, which we are observing across the sector, can only be attributed to the rise of AI. A company which serves its stakeholders will do anything to cut costs, even at the expense of its workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this throughout history; when technological breakthroughs are achieved, a strata of workers is made redundant. In Ireland, we saw this with containerisation in the 1970s, when dock workers were let go in their masses due to advances in mechanical systems which could unload ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no plan in place for those workers, whose families and communities were devastated by unemployment. Today, the Government has no coherent plan for those who will be laid off by their employers as they adopt AI to cut costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will result is a perpetuation of wealth inequality – companies will report greater profits as a result of the unpaid salaries they save, and communities will become poorer as unemployment rises. Unlike containerisation, the rise of AI will lead to redundancies across multiple sectors, many of which are dominated by middle class, administrative jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRising unemployment brings a greater demand for welfare supports from the State, a decrease in taxes being paid on salaries and in our local economy, leading to a narrowing of our tax base, and, ultimately, concessions being made on the delivery of public services. The only party who profits from these redundancies are CEOs and company shareholders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government likes to say that those who are made redundant due to AI will be retrained, but this is not a solution – the jobs that those programmes are designed for will become fewer and fewer as the competition grows for employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur reality is one in which multinational companies are becoming wealthier than states, the former whose only responsibility is to its shareholders, the latter whose responsibility is to the wellbeing of all of its citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI will be the defining technological advancement of this generation, and the decisions we make in regards to its regulation will shape our future. I am requesting in writing that the Minister for Enterprise must engage with the Oireachtas AI Committee to ensure that AI does not become the great divider it threatens to.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 20th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Minister for Enterprise must meet with the Oireachtas AI Committee to discuss what regulations are needed to prevent mass unemployment as a result of AI, according to Social Democrats enterprise spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney, who sits on the Oireachtas AI Committee, said: \u201cMeta has informed the Government that it plans to lay off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[593,724,7,497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-enterprise","category-press-release","category-sinead-gibney"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n