Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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671. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if her Department has taken advice in respect of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within her Department in 2024 and to date in 2025; if any section of her Department currently makes use of artificial intelligence; if she will outline the purposes it is utilised for and costs associated with same; if she has consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of AI; if she will provide a schedule of consultants engaged and costs of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6332/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is guided by the Interim Guidelines for Use of AI in the Public Service published by the Public Service Transformation Delivery Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and by the National Cyber Security Centre on ICT policy and security matters.

Beyond this, DCEDIY does not have a specific policy on the use of artificial intelligence. DCEDIY has recently upgraded its suite of standard office productivity tools to the latest version of these applications, based on the Microsoft 365 platform.

This platform includes additional business intelligence, process automation, app development, and app connectivity products 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 use AI, including large language models, in the preparation of legislation or statutory instruments; and does not use A.I. for decision making. Several staff have undertaken AI familiarisation sessions. DCEDIY does not have any specific costs associated with A.I.