Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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253. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department has taken advice in respect of the use of artificial intelligence, AI, within the Department; if any section of his Department currently makes use of AI; the purposes it is utilised for and costs associated with same; if he has consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of AI.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4810/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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My Department led the development of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy - “AI – Here for Good”. As part of this Strategy, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) play a key role in providing advice and guidance on the deployment of AI tools across the public sector including to my Department. Specifically, Stand 4 AI Serving the Public focuses on driving the use of A.I. across Government, which is overseen by the GovTech Delivery Board with supporting workstreams in relation to data (as a foundational enabler for the deployment of A.I.), security, ethical considerations and future skills.

The National AI Strategy and this cross-government engagement will continue to inform my Department's future approach in seeking to leverage A.I. in relation to the work and functions of the Department. When considering the use of new technologies, my Department assesses the risks and benefits of appropriate technologies, including A.I., on a case by case basis. When implementing these technologies, advice is sought from all appropriate sources. No consultancy firms have yet been consulted.

All staff in my Department have access to some Generative AI tools which they are permitted to use in certain circumstances. A policy document has been issued to all staff advising them of the risks and mitigation to consider when using these tools and this policy position is currently being updated based on the latest available advice. Artificial Intelligence is currently not being used for any other purpose in my Department although work is commencing to identify potential use cases for this technology to support the work of the Department.

One of my Department’s Offices, the Companies Registration Office (CRO), uses machine learning to scan digitised annual returns to check whether they are signed in the appropriate places. This technology has proven to be very effective in delivering processing efficiencies for the CRO. The CRO received over 240,000 Annual Returns in 2022, all of which were processed using this signature recognition facility. The cost of this project was €175,402. My Department and the CRO also collaborated on an artificial intelligence project to scan CRO annual returns and extract company financial data. Work on data analysis from this project and in planning the further scaling out of this project is currently ongoing. The cost of this project was €46,110.