Part of the AI Regulation News hub.
Ireland's enterprise department is collecting written submissions on the EU Cloud and AI Development Act proposal until 11 September 2026
This is an evidence-gathering exercise for a member state negotiating position, not a rule. What matters is who bothers to file before 11 September, because the department says it will use the submissions to work out what Irish stakeholders actually think.
Bottom line: Not binding on anyone. A consultation opened by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to build an evidence base on a European Commission proposal that is itself still a proposal.
Who this affects: In-house counsel and public affairs leads at cloud providers, data centre operators, AI developers and enterprise IT buyers with Irish operations, plus procurement officers in Irish public bodies.
Issue date: Published 14 August 2026. Submissions due by email to cada@enterprise.gov.ie by 11 September 2026.
What changed: Ireland now has a named channel and a fixed date for input on CADA. Before this, there was the Commission's own proposal library and nothing national.
Analysis: The department states there is no requirement to comment on the whole Act. That lowers the cost of filing to a single well-argued page on one clause, which is how most useful submissions get written anyway.
Primary sources: DETE consultation page · Explanatory note (PDF, 490 KB) · Commission CADA proposal, annexes and impact assessment
- Instrument (EN)
- Public consultation on the European Commission proposal for a Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA)
- Authority
- Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE), Ireland
- Jurisdiction
- Ireland, feeding into EU-level negotiation
- Status
- Open consultation
- Bindingness
- None. It creates no obligation and confers no right
- Issue date / next deadline
- Published 14 August 2026 / submissions close 11 September 2026
- How to respond
- Email to cada@enterprise.gov.ie
- Publication risk
- Responses may be published; all submissions treated as available under the Freedom of Information Act 2014
- Primary source
- https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/consultations/public-consultation-cada.html
What the department actually asked for
The page is short. DETE says it is undertaking a public consultation to inform an evidence base responding to the Commission's CADA proposal, which it describes as a new regulatory framework intended to strengthen Europe's cloud computing and artificial intelligence ecosystem.
There is no questionnaire, no template and no online form. Submissions go by email to cada@enterprise.gov.ie and must arrive by 11 September 2026.
One sentence does most of the work for anyone deciding whether to file: submissions can relate to any part of the Act, and there is no requirement to express a view on the entire Act.
The four things CADA is said to cover
On the department's account, the proposal includes measures aimed at cloud and computing capacity, support for AI innovation, public sector cloud procurement, and the development of a European framework for cloud computing sovereignty.
DETE attributes the stated purpose to the Commission: strengthening competitiveness, innovation capacity and resilience, and creating a more integrated and autonomous European market for cloud and AI technologies. The department does not endorse or dispute that characterisation on the page.
Public sector cloud procurement is the item most likely to reach organisations that do not think of themselves as AI companies. If a proposal shapes how Irish public bodies buy cloud, it shapes what suppliers have to be able to demonstrate.
Freedom of information is the trap in this one
The department states its intention that all submissions received will be made available under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, and that they may be published on its website.
Responsibility for flagging sits with the respondent. Parties are told to clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information, or confidential information they would not wish released.
That instruction is easy to skim past when a submission is drafted at speed by a technical team. A commercially sensitive capacity figure inside an otherwise unremarkable paragraph is exactly the sort of thing that gets published because nobody marked it.
What happens after 11 September
The department says it will review all submissions and may engage directly with stakeholders to discuss specific issues in more detail where appropriate.
The stated output is understanding: the feedback will help inform the department's understanding of stakeholder views on the different aspects of the proposal. No commitment is made to publish a response document, and none is promised on any timetable.
So the realistic value of filing is access to that follow-up conversation, plus a dated record of a position taken before the negotiation hardened.
What we did not verify
We opened and read the DETE consultation page at enterprise.gov.ie in full, and confirmed the 14 August 2026 publication date and the 11 September 2026 closing date on the page itself.
We did not open the 490 KB explanatory note PDF, and we did not open the Commission's CADA proposal, annexes or impact assessment. Every description of what CADA contains in this article is DETE's summary, not our reading of the legislative text.
We do not claim that CADA has been adopted, that any of its measures apply today, or that filing a submission produces any legal effect. We also make no claim about how many submissions have been received.
A consultation with no form and no word limit is an invitation to be specific. If your organisation has one clause it genuinely cares about, a single page filed before 11 September 2026 is worth more than a broad statement of support. Mark anything commercially sensitive explicitly, because the department has said in advance that it treats submissions as releasable under FOI.
Source File
https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/consultations/public-consultation-cada.html
Open the DETE consultation page and confirm three things: the date stamp reading 14th August 2026, the submission address cada@enterprise.gov.ie with the deadline of 11 September 2026, and the paragraph stating that submissions may be released under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
Submissions can relate to any part of the Act and there is no requirement to express a view on the entire Act. ยท Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, 14 August 2026
FAQ
Does this consultation change any obligation on cloud or AI providers today?
No. It is a request for written views on a European Commission proposal. Nothing on the page creates a duty, a deadline for compliance, or an enforcement risk.
Can we respond on one narrow point instead of the whole proposal?
Yes. The department states explicitly that submissions can relate to any part of the Act and that there is no requirement to express a view on the entire Act.
Will our submission stay confidential?
Assume not. DETE says it intends all submissions to be available under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and that they may be published, with personal information removed. Anything commercially sensitive has to be marked as such by the respondent.
What is the actual deadline and how do we file?
Email your submission to cada@enterprise.gov.ie by 11 September 2026. There is no online form.
Related briefings
Sponsored Training
Practical AI training for regulated professionals, built around verification, documentation and a defensible process. See the courses.