Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will see. I want to ask about digitalisation. We had a hearing two weeks ago and I thank Ms Jean Carberry, who is here, for the very useful information that she gave to us relating to the digital economy and the society index. We know that only 66% of SMEs have a basic level of digital intensity. When we look at the various indices, there is scope for improving this. A total of 37% of businesses with more than ten workers are using big data. That is a very low figure. More than half are using the cloud and only 8% are using AI. This is something that we as a committee have taken a particular interest in. Clearly there is scope for improvement there but the scope is there because the levels are low, which is not good.

There is no reason Ireland cannot become an international economic digital leader. We have significant strategic advantages here, especially in our network of multinational and indigenous tech companies. What is the Government doing at the moment to achieve improvements in this area? Is there anything new in the pipeline that has not been mentioned that the Minister feels will have an impact in this area? I am specifically concerned about the 8% using AI given that there is significant scope there. I welcome the Minister's thoughts that.