Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment
10:00 am
Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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We fund innovation offices and knowledge offices through our third level education tertiary links. That is important for enterprise because once the links are established and the connection is there, the Government is able to fund the streams and then they can provide vouchers right to the SME client. They can set out what issue they need help with and what area they need assistance with and hopefully achieve better productivity and better innovation. Deputy O'Reilly is quite right that AI is a huge challenge. It is very important for public trust that we manage it correctly and we regulate effectively but do not reduce innovation. The big challenge is to strike that balance.