Sinn Féin culture spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh has tabled a motion in the Dáil asking the Irish government to use its six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, which began in early July, to press for answers on AI and copyright. The motion was set for debate as private members' business on 14 July.
Beyond the EU agenda, it calls for domestic law covering generative AI licensing, transparency, fair pay and personality rights. It also wants public arts funding kept for human creators and a seat for the creative industries on the national AI Advisory Council, so the sector is part of AI policymaking rather than consulted after the fact.
Ó Snodaigh argues Irish artists' work is being used without consent or payment to build systems whose output competes with them. The Ivors Academy, the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland and collecting society IMRO back the motion, as does Danny O'Donoghue of The Script, and supporters hope for cross-party votes since Sinn Féin is in opposition. The Ivors Academy's Irish policy lead framed the presidency as a chance for Ireland to set the agenda on creators' rights and urged TDs to vote yes.
The push reflects wider European unease. The 2024 AI Act asks developers to respect copyright and disclose training material, but critics say those duties have been weakly enforced and that the text and data mining exception, with its opt-out, protects rightsholders poorly. Label and publisher licensing deals with firms like Udio and Klay add a newer worry: whether artists will be asked for consent or told how the money is shared.
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