Mr. Barry Lowry:

I will maybe start on this. Many public service jobs will change going forward. Public service workers are naturally very adaptable and just like they started using computer systems, they will take to AI and use it where required. We are starting to see it in our own Department with the use of Copilot. That is a fairly low level overall but it shows the aptitude and the willingness is there to learn.

One of the things our Department is responsible for is digital inclusion as well as digital. The message we have asked our Ministers to give out is on the importance of Ireland excelling in the digital government targets. We want to go further than Europe. It is available online: we go into how we want 90% consumption online. What that is aimed to do is free up public servants to help the most vulnerable because the reality is, and Denmark and Sweden have all been on this journey, you will always end up with a figure around 10% of people who cannot, will not or do not want to follow the digital journey. What you want to do is still give them the best possible service by freeing up resources to give them more face-to-face support.

We carried out a public consultation before we started our digital strategy and there was a large rump of people who wanted help to do the digital journey. It was not that they did not want to go on it but that they needed help. Obviously, some of the investment in libraries and so on is to help them do that and people are able to get support in using some of the technology. That will need to be a focus going forward as well as part of inclusion, in order that people can exercise their choice to use AI and technology as a consumer as well.