Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I have one other question. I am conscious that my time is tight and I do not think I will have a chance to come back in again because I will have to leave after this. I have to chair a thing at IBEC.

I wish to speak briefly about the importance of high-performance computing in co-ordinating cutting-edge research, developing AI, etc. Do our guests know that Ireland's national supercomputer, Kay, which is hosted by the Irish Centre for High-End Computing in Galway, has been obsolete from November 2023? There is no replacement supercomputer in the pipeline despite the fact that we have known about this for a long time. The State will now have to use the supercomputer in Luxembourg. Such failures of public investment in capital infrastructure for computing and our national supercomputer will have a profound impact not just on the technology sector, but on the sectors the witnesses have spoken about today. I wish to ask, both specifically on this issue and also more generally on infrastructural investments and the deficits that exist, about the impacts that will have on the adoption of AI, how it develops and how it can be built upon, given the State does not have access to a supercomputer, except outside of the State in Luxembourg.