Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Budget 2026 will safeguard and expand our economic growth and enhance Ireland’s competitiveness into the future. It is future-focused and, critically, it reflects the importance of Ireland’s digital and enterprise economy. With regard to the measures in budget 2026 that fall under my remit, I will mention two particular areas. First, we have ring-fenced €1.4 million to establish a national artificial intelligence office. Second, funding has been secured for an AI summit which will be part of our EU Presidency in 2026.

The new national AI office will act as a central and co-ordinating authority for the EU AI Act in Ireland. The office will act as a vocal point for AI in Ireland, encompassing regulation, innovation and employment. Harnessing the potential of AI, and digital technologies more broadly, is vital to maintain our competitiveness. Budget 2026 paves the way for us to achieve this and fulfils a number of commitments laid out in my Department’s recently published action plan on competitiveness and productivity.

Moving on to how budget 2026 practically assists Irish businesses in reaping the benefits of AI and digital transformation, one of the biggest opportunities around AI and digital deployment is bridging the productivity gap in our indigenous SMEs. The Department currently provides a range of supports, including the grow digital voucher, tailored plans through the digital for business consultancy scheme and access to expert guidance from our European digital innovation hubs to help SMEs embrace basic levels of digital tools and invest more in sophisticated tools for their businesses. The funding being provided through budget 2026 will ensure that businesses can continue to avail of these supports. I am committed to ensuring that our indigenous businesses, particularly SMEs, are made fully aware of the supports that are available to them for digitalisation.

It is also the case that the national development plan has provided our Department with a substantial funding envelope to fund our capital programmes out to 2030. This will ensure that we can deliver on a number of key and strategically important enterprise development initiatives, including supporting the scaling up of Irish companies and helping them grow and innovate through targeted measures, such as Enterprise Ireland’s seed and venture programme. The funding will also support our priority actions highlighted in the action plan for competitiveness, such as the establishment of start-up Ireland, expanding the suite of Ireland’s technology centres, supporting the development and implementation of regional enterprise plans and, of course, our LEOs.

As Minister for State with responsibility for trade promotion, I am conscious of the important roles carried out by our enterprise and tourism development agencies worldwide to promote our shared trade, investment and tourism objectives. The recently published action plan on market diversification seeks to assist and support Ireland’s businesses to adapt to a new trading environment by exploring new and diverse markets and deepening our engagement in existing markets. The increased funding being provided in budget 2026 to key agencies, such as the IDA and Tourism Ireland, will help to ensure they can play their part in delivering on the ambitions of this action plan. I look forward to working with colleagues in the Department to successfully execute all of these ambitions into the future.

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