Written answers
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Artificial Intelligence
James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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811. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to identify specific examples where artificial intelligence has been adapted for the operation of his Department and each body under the aegis of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12929/25]
Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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My Department is guided by relevant legislation, policies and the National Cyber Security Centre in respect of all matters related to the use or operation of artificial intelligence. All applications and platforms used or operated by my Department must be in line with relevant policies and be consistent with advice provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
My Department occasionally uses the European Commission’s eTranslation machine translation platform, which is based on neural machine translation, being a form of artificial intelligence. This platform can be used to provide a draft translation of a text or a document between the Irish and English languages as part of the Department’s work, thus assisting in making efficiencies in the organisation’s operations.
For information, my Department has funded a number of programmes relating to artificial intelligence and the Irish language, as set out in the table below.
| Nature of AI systems or research funded | Amount Spent in 2024 on AI systems or research | Amount allocated for 2025 on AI systems or research | Further detail |
|---|---|---|---|
ALT-EDIC (Large Language Model for European Languages (Gaeilge)) | €45,000 | €45,000 | ALT-EDIC is a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium founded in February 2024, with Ireland as a founding member. Its key objectives are to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe, promote technological excellence and leadership, and tackle challenges relating to Large Language Models (LLMs). |
Abair.ie (Speech-to-text / Text-to-speech as Gaeilge) | €326,776 | €427,691 | The Abair project aims to develop state-of-the-art language technologies for Irish, with a particular emphasis on speech synthesis and voice recognition applications. |
eStór (Large Language Model for Gaeilge) | €391,850 | €249,098 | eStór is a data collection project aimed at enhancing the operability of Irish for the European Commission’s eTranslation machine translation platform, which is based on neural machine translation. |
An Gaodhal (Optical Character Recognition software for Old Irish script) | N/A | €40,000 | The An Gaodhal project aims to develop character recognition software for Irish, with a particular emphasis on character recognition for texts written in the old Gaelic typeface. |
In relation to bodies under the aegis of my Department the use of Artificial Intelligence tools would be an operational matter for the respective body.
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