Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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402. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the work being carried out by his Department and any engagement with other Departments and Government agencies and companies to build a strategy for the utilisation of AI for enterprise innovation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47594/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government includes a commitment to harness the digital and AI revolution to deliver effective and modern public services and to grow the economy. This includes a commitment to update the National Digital and AI Strategy, bringing together digital policy and regulatory responsibilities.

Interdepartmental discussions and collaborations take place regularly. The Senior Officials Group on Digital Issues, supported by the D/Taoiseach’s Economic Development and Digital Unit, oversees the Group and reports to the Cabinet Committee on Economy and Investment to drive digital policy implementation across Government.

My Department is leading on the Enterprise Pillar which will encompass the utilisation of AI for enterprise innovation. The updated enterprise pillar of the new National Digital Strategy will build on the current framework, while integrating AI throughout, with 3 main areas of focus 1) Driving Enterprise Adoption and innovation 2) Fostering an ecosystem for innovative startups 3) Attracting inward investments.

Targeted stakeholder engagement is currently ongoing which is expected to be completed over the coming weeks. We would expect that the Strategy will be updated and completed during 2025.

Minister of State for Trade Promotion, AI & Digital Transformation Niamh Smyth recently launched a Charter for Digital Inclusion, and a dedicate webpage has been set up on the Department website. See link here: .

The Charter sets out commitments to building a more digitally inclusive Ireland. An important focus of the Charter is a call to action to create a collaboration framework between big and small businesses, calling on larger businesses to commit to helping SMEs adopt digital technologies in various ways. But equally important, is the work that businesses undertake with community groups and citizens to improve access to technologies and services and also to build the necessary digital skills and literacy for people to fully benefit from them.