Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Chair and welcome the witnesses. My background is in business and I am interested in what the committee, in its work over the next two years, will learn and consider. I am interested in many of the topics Deputy Murphy touched on, but the two areas on I want to focus on in the work of this committee are enterprise and opportunity. With my background in business, I am aware of how businesses have been preparing for digitalisation and the impact the changes in and evolution of AI in its various formats over the past three years will have on the business community.

I am particularly interested in not just supporting SMEs to adopt AI and make them more efficient to ensure their workers are focused on more high-value output and all of the positives that can come to business from that, but also the opportunities for enterprise development for our entrepreneurs and companies and supporting them in the investment they need to make to ensure we are not left behind in this critical industry and new sector that is developing. We need to ensure that we support Irish companies and innovators in being at the forefront and not requiring them to get on a plane and go to America or somewhere else to make something happen. I am interested in what is being done in France and how the French state has become involved in supporting that. I am interested in the contribution of the witnesses today.

Like my colleague, I am particularly focused on energy consumption. We will need to invest more heavily in energy infrastructure and data centres. In planning for data centres, we must plan for them to use renewable energy. I am not speaking about token greenwashing with a solar panel at the front. Rather, I am talking about investing heavily as a State in offshore renewable energy so that there is a consistent supply of renewable energy to fuel this engine.

We are going to need that in order to ensure that our economy, at minimum, keeps pace with the rest of the developing world or, in the best case scenario, is actually at the forefront leading.