Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Sean Blanchfield:
I think there is a potential for massive economic disruption from AI. The places where Ireland can feasibly participate in the future supply chain include renewable energies where we should be able to do a lot more than we are and data centres, because we have excelled in hosting data centres up until recently relative to our size. We have the established expertise to do that. A regulatory environment is another area and to some extent maybe an actual technology as with a few companies like us. We will see about that. Energy and data centres are some core elements in which we have a pedigree and in which we should seek to try to participate. It really does boil down, however, to renewable energy and hopefully to tapping into that future demand. Hopefully, we will end up in a better situation where AI helps drive the market towards renewables and we can excel at being a leader in that.