Ms Hilary O'Meara:

We have already discussed the detailed points but if I was to take it up a level, reflecting on the Deputy's question, the State has taken quite a good number of actions already which are encouraging. We have the AI strategy and the AI council. Government Departments are mobilising, implementing and experimenting with generative AI. There is an awful lot they are learning and understanding. We have started this journey. However, as we have all mentioned, it is moving so fast that the question is how we bring it all together. Where do organisations such as ours go to give this advice the Deputy is asking for? We need to consider where is the central agency or function that is obsessing about this technology and understands it to a level of detail. Then you can get into great conversations with organisations such as ours and feel a responsibility and an accountability to do something with the information you have given. We need to be acting across all of these things. I would really encourage a consideration of that. We will probably have a new programme for Government at some stage next year and we would love to see these technologies, including generative AI, playing a really strong feature in that. Frankly, it should and needs to feature strongly. There is huge convening power in Ireland, as I mentioned in my opening statement, where we work together and we collaborate. All the tech firms are here in Ireland and we have business, academia and Government. If we all came together, there are some really powerful things we could do. However, we need to have somewhere to go to engage with Government on that, and where that space is situated is the question.

Finally, coming to the list of areas which the Deputy is concerned about, such as national capability and data centres, these are all the questions every government is asking. We do not all have the answers to these questions yet but we should be talking about them, collaborating, taking steps based on our understanding, and also engaging with other governments. We not alone in trying to figure this out. Having the EU there and engaging with it is very powerful. It comes back to that final question of taking the lead in the discussion around how the EU AI Act is going to be implemented. We have the Act but now we have to implement it. If we can step up and demonstrate that we are really taking that seriously, that is a great signal for Ireland.