Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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27. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline his investment plan for research in the area of artificial intelligence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54274/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has actively invested to enhance research activities in the area of artificial intelligence. Recently, following an international competitive process, an Irish AI Antenna factory has been awarded €5 million in European funding, a figure that will be evenly matched by my department’s funding.

The AI Factory Antenna will link directly to leading AI hubs in France and Luxembourg. It will provide access to computing infrastructure, technical support and training to develop, test and scale AI models and applications. The AI Factory Antenna will benefit the wide plethora of Irish innovators, including SMEs, public sector and researchers.

My Department is planning for the procurement of a High Performance Computer, also in this case accessible to stakeholders from the wider innovation ecosystem. High performance computing and artificial intelligence highly complement each other, for instance in the domain of large data storage, and this new national infrastructure will enable innovators from all disciplines and sectors to explore new applications.

Other than physical infrastructure, my Department funds AI-focused research though Research Ireland.

I have been advised that as of February 2025, there were 195 active Research Ireland awards totalling €340M in investment. Furthermore, Research Ireland funds two Centres with a strong focus on AI: the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre, hosted by Trinity College Dublin, and the Insight Research Ireland Centre, hosted by Dublin City University.

In addition, I would also draw the Deputy's attention to the Research Ireland funded Centres for Research Training which focus on areas such as AI and data science, and which provide cohort-based training to doctoral researchers.