Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. I heard this morning that AI is front and centre at Davos as well. It is certainly coming to the fore very rapidly. It will have potentially radical benefits, be they in diagnostics, in some advanced care, or robotics for procedures, and as we move forward with genetics, genomics and genome sequencing. AI will move more and more to the fore. What is critical for Ireland is for us to make sure that we capture these benefits for patients. We must have state-of-the-art e-health and digital infrastructure in place. The reality is Ireland is not just a laggard but a significant laggard in the EU and the developed world in this regard.

To that end, we have been doing a lot of work on a new e-health and digital strategy. I will launch that strategy this year. It is being finalised at present. It will be a six- or seven-year strategy. We have had a lot of consultation with experts and potential providers to see what platforms can be used. We are doing it in parallel with the health information Bill, which I will bring to the Government shortly and will include the matter of unique patient identifiers. It will establish a central agency that will be able to collate data because, ultimately, AI is data driven, as I know the Deputy knows very well.

There have already been one or two projects, despite the lack of national infrastructure we need. Last December, the Mater announced it was the first hospital to use AI for patient scans. I might give the Deputy more detail on that in my response.

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