2026-02-19

10. Deputy Catherine Ardagh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if he will establish an AI observatory to complement the national AI office, and track real-time issues and project future impacts on jobs and skills to provide independent forecasting and policy advice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12952/26]

Question No. 10 will be taken by Deputy Malcolm Byrne.

Will the Minister establish an AI observatory to run in parallel with the national AI office to look at real-time figures with regard to jobs displacement and the skills needed for Ireland to avail of the opportunities AI presents?

I thank the Deputy for his question. Last year, the Government received recommendations from the AI Advisory Council and National Skills Council to establish observatories on AI and skills. The action plan for competitiveness and productivity subsequently included a strategic action to establish an AI observatory. The basis for these observatories is a need to provide up-to-date data and insights on aspects such as labour market dynamics, skills and other AI metrics. I fully agree that the intelligence developed through the work of the observatories could greatly assist the Government by providing evidence on an ongoing basis to inform policy decisions. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science recently brought a memorandum to Government informing it of his intention to progress the establishment of a national skills observatory. It is envisaged that the national skills observatory will transform our skills intelligence landscape and provide a more joined-up approach to data gathering and use. The observatory will act as a central repository for labour market and skills information in Ireland, facilitating improved workforce planning, stronger policy and decision-making, and improved lifelong learning and workforce reskilling among other benefits. This will provide a valuable source of data and insights on the labour market and skills, including in relation to artificial intelligence. My Department is currently considering an observatory focused on enterprise adoption of AI. Together with the national skills observatory, this would inform Government in shaping future AI-related enterprise and jobs policy. The establishment of an observatory on the enterprise adoption of AI is a deliverable in the new national digital and AI strategy, which was published yesterday. AI is evolving rapidly and its impacts are difficult to predict. The Government is committed to strengthening our capability to understand and respond to the opportunities and challenges ahead through the AI observatory. It will be a key piece in supporting our actions.

I thank the Minister for the priority he has been giving to this proposal. As he says, the advisory council has strongly recommended it, as have those of us on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Change is happening at pace and things are happening quickly. We saw the recommendations within the Government's strategy on AI and digitalisation, which was published yesterday, but we also had a report from the Department of Finance yesterday that identified that Ireland is potentially most at risk from rapid changes resulting from AI that will impact on the labour force, particularly in the areas of IT, professional services and financial services. It is therefore critical that we are equipped and that we see what these real-time changes are going to be. I welcome the moves by the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Lawless, to provide microcredentials for skills and the whole-of-government approach through the skills observatory and AI observatory so that we will be prepared for the opportunities that will be presented and for the significant levels of job displacement we are going to see.

As the Deputy has pointed out, it is critically important that risk is managed in this process. That is why the IDA has set out under its five-year strategy to train 40,000 people. In the first year, we reached 33,000. That is transformational. It makes jobs sticky and ensures that people are upskilled and ready to grasp the opportunities artificial intelligence presents. We have a skills base in the Irish economy. We have double the EU average number of ICT graduates. We also have double the EU average number of STEM graduates per capita in the 20 to 39 age category. On 14 October, we will hold our AI summit. The Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth, is doing huge work on that with the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and myself. That will be a key opportunity to showcase Ireland at the application stage. It will give us the opportunity to show what we can do and deliver in our economy. We look forward to driving the public trust and simplification agendas, which need to go hand in glove if we are to be successful and have a very strong model.

I am hugely supportive of all of that. It is very welcome. It is unfortunate the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, cannot be here today but I welcome the fact that she is at the global AI summit in New Delhi. It is critically important that Ireland takes a leadership role in this space. There is already anecdotal evidence that we are seeing significant changes in the jobs market so I welcome the fact that we are looking to be ahead of this. It is critical that there is an understanding within the Minister's Department and across the broader public service. I suggest that civil and public servants be encouraged to undertake the new programmes being launched through the Department of further and higher education so that they will understand the potential of AI. It would serve us well for all Members of this House to have the opportunity to avail of some of these courses to understand the real impact of AI and other new technologies on the employment market and on society more generally.

It is absolutely necessary that we track the changes in the jobs market. We are all aware of jobs that have been displaced and replaced. It is a matter of being able to react and being agile. That is something that goes without saying. We have already discussed issues around the regulation of artificial intelligence, which is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Deputy Byrne. We need training - and we could do with starting in here - on what AI can do. In this entire conversation, we need to ensure we do not lose out on the possible benefits and innovation. If we talk about the health sector, we have seen in many other states that huge improvements and streamlining can be introduced. That is a necessity. We must ensure that element of innovation while offering protection and remaining agile in relation to changes in the jobs market caused by AI.

I assure the Deputies we are very much responding to the huge challenge presented in the jobs market, but also the opportunity. The opportunity is very significant. The key pieces include skills, on which we have done a huge amount of work, and having our energy policy correct. The Deputies will have seen our large energy user policy, which gives a huge opportunity for sustainable use. Power will be a significant challenge in financing our offshore renewables and our green transition, which will go hand in hand with our digital transition. Leadership is important and we are doing that through our AI summit, the work being carried out in relation to our AI Act, establishing our AI office in August, having a regulatory sandbox in place and driving that pro-enterprise, proportionate agenda across the European Union. We have to be careful to protect jobs in our economy. I know that more than most because every week I get notifications of redundancies across the economy. I see a trend in relation to those exposed to artificial intelligence. On the other side, there is huge recruitment with some companies taking on hundreds of jobs to further their research and innovation in artificial intelligence.

We move on to Question No. 11. Deputy Byrne is again taking this one.