James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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151. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is considering the use of artificial intelligence to improve the processing of claims and payments by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21723/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The term A.I can have a number of meanings. For some it is limited to systems that are self-learning and/or can generate content autonomously (Gen A.I.). Others include systems that use programmed business or decision rules to automate some elements of decision making.The Department is examining the potential future use of Gen A.I. technologies. This involves active participation in several stakeholder groups, including the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's working group on the implementation of the EU AI Act.Currently there are no such Gen A.I. systems in place for processing claims and payments in the Department.Separately, the Department has for many years automated its processes as much as possible by programming scheme rules into its IT systems. This enables flow-through processing of claims including Pension, Back to School Clothing and Footwear and Child Benefit claims. It is important to note that no claim is disallowed using these automated systems. Any claim that is not awarded on a flow-through basis is referred to a Deciding Officer of the Department for human intervention.