Summer 2025 Government Legislation Programme

The Government recently published its Summer Legislation Programme for 2025. It features important legislation relating to healthcare, national security and tech regulation. Our Public, Regulatory & Investigations team discusses some of the proposed legislation.

What you need to know

• The Government has published its Summer 2025 Legislation Programme.
• The programme covers important legislation relating to healthcare, national security and other areas.
• The programme includes 23 Bills prioritised for publication during the summer session, 28 Bills scheduled for priority drafting and 63 additional Bills under development.

The Government has published the Summer Legislative Programme 2025 which identifies 51 priority pieces of draft legislation (Bills) for progression in the summer sitting of the Dáil which runs from 29 April to 17 July.

The complete Programme can be accessed here.

In launching the Programme, the Government Chief Whip, Mary Butler TD stated:

“I will continue to work with each Minister and their departments to ensure we progress legislation and prioritise our Programme for Government commitments. The establishment of Oireachtas committees will also allow for the progression of more legislation over the coming months and years. Pre-legislative scrutiny by these committees will play a crucial role in refining many of the proposals before they are brought to the Houses for debate.”

Healthcare

The Health (Licensing of Professional Home Support Providers) Bill has moved from priority drafting to priority publication. It aims to establish a regulatory framework for licensing home support providers. The goal is to ensure that all service users receive high quality care in accordance with HIQA national standards. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) (Amendment) Bill is also marked for priority publication. This Bill seeks to address issues relating to parentage and citizenship arising from the use of fertility clinics abroad by Irish residents and Irish citizens living abroad.

Meanwhile, the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill is marked for priority drafting, with its Heads of Bill having been approved in September 2024. This Bill seeks to amend various regulatory statutes to enable agreed Departmental policy on advanced practice Health and Social Care Professions and on Fitness to Practise, as well as creating new supports for regulators such as the NMBI in fulfilling their public protection objectives.

The Patient Safety (Licensing) Bill may be of particular interest to healthcare stakeholders. It will, for the first time, introduce a licensing requirement for all hospitals, public and private. However, it is currently on the “all other legislation” list so publication of this Bill may be some way off.

Cyber Security and Tech Regulation

The National Cyber Security Bill remains on the priority publication list. This Bill will transpose the EU Directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the EU (otherwise known as NIS2). It will provide a baseline level of cybersecurity to entities that it captures but much more importantly from a regulatory perspective, it will require the relevant competent authority for each sector to be responsible for supervision and enforcement. Those competent authorities will have significant powers such as imposition of personal liability on company officers and senior management.

The Data Bill is marked for priority drafting and its Heads of Bill are currently being prepared. This Bill is intended to support innovation and economic growth by creating a harmonised framework on fair access and use of data. Similarly, the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill is included in the Programme under ‘all other legislation’. This Bill will give effect to EU Regulation 2024/1689 laying down harmonized rules on AI. It will enable the designated National Competent Authorities responsible for implementing and enforcing the Regulation to cooperate and provide for penalties.

National and Local Government

The Electoral Reform (Amendment) Bill has been a feature of legislation programmes for some time and is currently marked for priority publication, its Heads of Bill having been approved in June 2024. It will amend the Electoral Reform Act 2022 to provide for a regulatory framework to protect the integrity of elections and referendums against the dissemination or publication of online disinformation, online misinformation and manipulative or inauthentic behaviour online. This is to be achieved by creating new obligations for online platforms and granting extensive powers to the Electoral Commission.

Similarly, the Ethics in Public Office Bill has been listed for priority drafting. This Bill is intended to reform and consolidate existing ethics in public office legislation.

Miscellaneous

Additional Heads of Bill were approved for the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill in April 2025. This Bill will reform corporate governance of RTÉ and TG4. As part of this, the Comptroller and Auditor General will be assigned as auditor of RTÉ and strengthening the role and duties of the RTÉ board in line with recommendations from the Expert Advisory Committee on Governance and Culture in RTÉ. Finally, Heads of Bill have also been approved for the Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which will regulate district heating networks in Ireland.

Comment

The Summer Legislation Programme 2025 reflects a continuation by the Government of priorities such as healthcare and cyber security, which were previously addressed in the Spring Legislation Programme.

For more information on the Summer Legislative Programme 2025, please contact a member of our Public, Regulatory and Investigations team.

People also ask

The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.