Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1440. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has taken advice in respect of the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) within his Department; if any section of his Department currently makes use of A.I., and if he will outline the purposes it is utilised for and costs associated with same; and if he has consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of A.I. [38561/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I wish to inform the Deputy the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) has not taken advice in respect of the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) within the Department; DCEDIY is currently in the process of upgrading its suite of standard office productivity tools to the latest version of these applications, which are based on the Microsoft 365 platform. This platform includes additional business intelligence, process automation, app development, and app connectivity products that we avail of to develop line of business solutions for the Department. The underlying technology for this platform includes services that are labelled as A.I.. DCEDIY does not generate any content using A.I. and does not use A.I. for decision making. DCEDIY does not have any specific costs associated with A.I.; DCEDIY has not consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of A.I.. DCEDIY is guided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and by the National Cyber Security Centre on ICT policy and security matters.