Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. Tá AI linn agus cé go bhfuil leas le baint as, tá baoil ag baint leis freisin. Ar aon chaoi, tá sé ag tarlúint agus caithfimid cinnte a dhéanamh de go bhfuil ár bpolasaithe réidh le déileáil leis ó thaobh cúrsaí oideachais agus fostaíochta de agus ó thaobh seirbhísí poiblí agus go leor gnéithe eile. AI is a reality. It is pushing forward at a relentless pace. There are areas about which we would be concerned but there are also significant opportunities and potential for improving the quality of our public services as well as delivering economic growth so it must be carefully managed. We need a strategy for it. We are probably a bit behind the curve in that regard.

There is a need for the State to get ahead of developments in the AI space, to shape its direction of travel at a national and European level, to exploit the economic opportunities of AI, to harness its positive power and to legislate, where necessary, to protect workers and society. AI is not brand new. It is a technology which has existed for some time. However, the pace, scale and nature of its growth is close to being exponential. The speed of breakthroughs seems to surprise even those involved in the sector and the industries working with it.

The job of politicians is to keep pace with the technology and where it is going. It was for this reason that Sinn Féin previously called for the establishment of a forum on AI with a specific focus on the technological surveillance of workers using artificial intelligence and machine learning to establish the benefits and risks of it. When she was spokesperson in this area, Deputy Louise O'Reilly said that the national risk assessment highlights the need to focus on securing future economic opportunities in emerging knowledge-intensive sectors. The national risk assessment for Ireland 2024 makes clear the delicate balance of opportunities and threats due to technological advancement. The report states that while emerging technology will bring many opportunities, they also bring threats in terms of social cohesion and inequality. It is essential that State agencies such as the Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence analyse, investigate and navigate the risks that accompany emerging technologies. This will also include the trade union movement. If one is talking about reducing the amount of labour that is involved in a process, that has implications for employees. While there is benefit from productivity, there are issues in terms of displacement of jobs and this needs to be reckoned with. We cannot adopt a position that this must be rejected and the rest of the world is going to march on in any event but we need to give clear consideration as to how we ensure that jobs are insulated to the greatest extent possible and that new opportunities are created off the back of this as well.

There are also significant social and economic opportunities to be gained from emerging technologies. State economic agencies like IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and local enterprise offices need to seize on the opportunities that exist, particularly in knowledge-intensive sectors such as decarbonisation, clean tech, renewables, AI, machine learning, quantum computing, cell and gene therapy and other forms of advanced personalised medicine. Through doing this, we believe the State can minimise risk, maximise opportunity and put the economy on the front foot for the coming decades. There is a need for the State to get ahead of this, to exploit the economic opportunities that exist and to legislate, where necessary, to protect workers and society.

The direction of travel in education in recent years requires a certain amount of consideration. The playing pitch has changed. Many of the things we would have been examining still require examination but there is potential for discrepancies between our primary and secondary system and universities in terms of what is and is not permitted. We need a serious conversation about the skills we are trying to learn and whether we want people emerging from our education system who are the best at being able to manage AI or whether there are other types of skills. I am not being prescriptive in terms of solutions but it is a consideration. The other consideration is energy usage. Data centres need to be considered.

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