2026-05-12

164. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the way the newly launched AIReady.ie platform will specifically support workers who are at immediate risk of job losses due to AI; the plans that are being considered in expanding the platform’s content beyond introductory AI literacy to keeping pace with AI advancements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34869/26]

I welcome the launch of the aiready.ie website and its aims to upskill over 1 million people through free, short, accessible courses. As an introductory platform, it is very helpful and is a positive in that direction. My concern is whether aiready.ie in its current form is equipped to support workers who are facing immediate displacement and whether it connects clearly into deeper retraining pathways.

I thank an Teachta Moynihan. The pace and scale at which AI and technology in general is changing, adapting and transforming continues to astound us all, so it is all the more important that we try to stay ahead of it and that we drive our national AI skills agenda forward. It is one thing I am very conscious of right across education, research and innovation. As a productivity tool, so many businesses and users are adopting AI now in different ways. In my view, it is positive when properly harnessed and it is welcome. I do not think the worst-case fears are founded, nor do I think the wildest exaggerations of its abilities will be borne out. It is a bit like the Microsoft Excel programme, Google search or, indeed, a smartphone when they came along. We have advances in technology that we can reap benefits from, but ultimately we will move on to a different paradigm. Among the goals of strengthening literacy for all users, I recently launched aiready.ie as an AI skills platform. It is developed by SOLAS in partnership with my Department. That was based on the advice of the national skills council, which had identified that AI literacy was a fundamental competency and that we had strong skills in the expert-user area but were not as pervasive across the ordinary user or person who wishes to use it for their accounts, for productivity gains or even for planning a personal event to build a foundational awareness. That is an essential element. I am also launching a new range of courses, free or heavily subsidised through the Springboard+ programme, which will bring a number of microcredential courses and other courses to learners. They can be in employment, they can be independent but those courses will be offered at a heavily subsidised rate, with over 7,200 places being delivered by 36 providers nationwide. Between aiready.ie, Springboard+ courses and a number of microqualifications being delivered through the ETBs we now have quite a wide array of courses and training providers in the AI space.

Demystifying AI and familiarising people are an important first step. It cannot stop there, however, and the current AI Ready platform is focused very much on the first steps of introduction to AI. AI, as the Minister said, is rapidly evolving, and I am concerned that AI Ready may be focusing on yesterday's AI already. Can it bring people towards deeper retraining pathways? Can it act as a gateway? I look, for example, at MTU in Cork, with a wide range of micro credentials assisting people mid-career with courses in cybersecurity and AI skills and then doing those courses over a number of weeks and getting recognised qualifications on them and skills. Will the website, AIready.ie, be able to evolve into a gateway or a portal so as to bring people towards those courses and put them in a stronger position to work their job for their future roles?

Absolutely. That is very much the intention. It is, as the Deputy rightly said, currently pitched as an entry-level offering to raise the level of awareness among the general public and to broach that AI literacy or AI familiarity challenge in order that non-technical users can become more au fait with the technology, that it is demystified, as the Deputy said, and that they can get ready for it. That is the goal of the first round. It is very much the intention to continue to build on that platform, to host increasingly more sophisticated courses, to diversify and multiply the number of course offerings through it and to have the AIready.ie platform as a portal to other platforms. For example, a number of ETBs, including my local ETB, KWETB, have recently launched their own AI programme, which is a series of skills and training courses they are now offering at local level but also online in many cases. Every ETB in the country is taking up that baton as well similarly to roll out those AI courses. AIready.ie will continue to be expanded and to have additional course offerings as well as having finger-posting to the different options available on other compatible websites.

AI Ready is an important first step and it needs to evolve quickly from the basic introduction into a more meaningful enabler and a gateway for other courses. I am glad that the Minister has been engaging with the various colleges, SOLAS and others about the courses they are offering and developing. Will they be available through the AIready.ie portal? Will it act as a gateway or a portal? Because some sectors will be more affected by AI than others, will there be sector-specific courses and pathways set out and signposted for people? It is very much a different situation in financial services and the skills that would be needed there with AI, for example, skills that might be needed in graphic design for AI. Will the Minister outline how it is intended that the platform will be developed so as to support people whose jobs are at risk from AI?

Again, the Deputy made strong points, and I fully agree. The intention is to continue to expand the portal. In addition, I have asked my Department to develop what we are calling a roadmap for technology and future skills and a statement of ambition, which will set out where we want this to go. There are all the things the Deputy has just described. In addition to the initial range of courses offered, the National Skills Council comprises a group of people, cross-sector, who are engaging with my Department and me to look at skills gaps that exist. We are holding a number of skills round-table events, where we bring sectoral employers into a room. We will host a construction event later this month, and I will host an AI-specific event then in June. The idea behind that is to look at professional services and how they are being impacted by AI, that is, legal firms, accountancy firms, professional consulting firms and many of those white-collar jobs in which we are seeing graduate recruitment being somewhat paused, perhaps, to understand the implications of that. Then that will inform part of the next planning for the next round of AI Ready and subsequent iterations of that. The National Skills Council will be very much a part of the team attending at that event and will draw from that expert evidence as to where we need to go next and what courses need to be offered.