2026-07-07

6. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the progress being made on the adoption of artificial intelligence across the public service to improve efficiency, reduce administrative burdens and enhance public services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51518/26]

AI has enormous potential to reduce administrative burdens, improve productivity and free up public servants to focus on delivery. Will the Minister outline what measurable progress has been made to date in adopting AI across Departments and Government agencies, what gains have already been achieved and when we will see further gains?

My Department has taken a proactive and co-ordinated approach to supporting the responsible and effective adoption of AI across the public service. A key component of this was the publication of the Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Service in May 2025, which provide a practical framework to assist public service bodies in designing, developing and deploying AI in a manner that is ethical, transparent and aligned with public service values. Responsibility for applying the guidelines rests with each public service body to embed them within governance arrangements pertaining to relevant work programmes. To build capabilities within the public service, my Department has worked with the Institute for Public Administration, IPA, to develop a suite of training courses on AI in the public service. Since they were launched, very high uptake has been observed with over 5,500 people having completed the course on the use of AI in the public service, and over 10,000 having completed the course on wider AI in the public service. In addition to training, my Department is in the process of establishing an AI advisory unit to provide advice and expertise for public service bodies on how to deploy AI in a way that maximises impact, mitigates risks, and supports integration with existing systems and we are also engaging with stakeholders to determine the feasibility of establishing an appropriate central procurement arrangement for AI. Against this backdrop, adoption of AI is actively taking place across the wider public service. In order to track diffusion of the technology and to understand the types of applications it is being used in, my Department is currently undertaking a comprehensive survey of all public sector bodies to obtain the most up-to-date data on AI adoption across the public service and to catalogue sectoral use cases to support cross-government information-sharing, learning, and strategic and operational oversight. This will also highlight a selection of flagship deployments in high-impact areas and we hope to provide a report on the findings of this survey in the coming months.

While I heard about a framework and a lot of training, I did not quite hear that we are actually measuring what cost savings, efficiencies and benefits there are, not only for the public service and Civil Service but to the people, our constituents and the public at large. Will the Minister confirm he will be measuring the real gains made in those terms?

Absolutely. The first step, and Deputy Malcolm Byrne who has been a strong advocate of it is present, is to provide a basis to encourage AI's use. From a system where the digitalisation of public services has been challenging over the past number of decades to one that positively embraces AI, it is people who will provide that interface to both design AI's use in the public service but also to use it. The fact we have had a strong uptake on training is a positive sign. We have really good test cases across different areas in terms of automation in many Departments and agencies. They are being centrally monitored and tracked now and trying to deploy and scale some of what has been developed is an important context. If you read our national AI strategy entitled Digital Ireland - Connecting our People, Securing our Future, it is against a backdrop of an aim to have 100% of key public services digitalised by 2030 and 90% of them accessed online and supported by a wider centralised AI advisory unit. This will all drive digitalisation, better public services and enhance the use of AI across the system, something I think we are doing properly by ensuring those deploying it have the appropriate training to do it.

I am more encouraged by the Minister's most recent response. It is important that the public, as well as people working in the Civil Service and public service, sees the benefits of AI. It is important the Minister's Department makes sure there are measurable key performance indicators, KPIs, measurable deliverables and that the benefits and gains are clearly articulated to people. One of my concerns is that in using AI for efficiency, and we absolutely need to do that, we need to be careful not to leave people behind, particularly those who cannot use digital technologies, but also not to lose the authenticity of person-to-person communication. It is about striking a balance and I really think the Department needs to take a very central role in articulating that to the Civil Service, the public service and to the people we represent.

There is a supplementary question from Deputy Malcolm Byrne.

I welcome and support the views expressed by Deputy Boland and I welcome the Minister's commentary. The experience has been that across Departments, the level of engagement with AI differs. Specifically when we are talking here about public sector procurement, which was mentioned, we need to explore the use of agentic AI. I want to be clear there should always be human oversight in this space but I mean the use of agentic AI in, for instance, how we can map vendor capabilities to Government needs, in terms of tender design, and particularly in terms of intelligent bids and contract monitoring. I often say that if we were able to use agentic AI in the case of the national children's hospital, for instance, where so many variables were being addressed it could be done more efficiently. I appreciate the guidelines for the responsible use of AI are very important and we do need to have human oversight but at different levels of Government this is moving at different speeds and it varies from Department to Department.

I thank both Deputies. In terms of the wider digital public services plan we, have the life events approach which is about embedding a lot of people's interface with public services through life events, and how they can be digitally enabled through a life events portal, which will provide a much better interface to people's interaction with the State. Also to Deputy Boland's point, we will ensure we protect that human interface as well where people are required. That is a central part of our wider digital public services plan. Part of it will be setting out, as Deputy Farrell has raised as well as Deputy Byrne, that the new procurement strategy will have a real digital focus as to how we future-proof procurement. That is something that will be set out in the coming weeks when we publish it. We will be using a lot more digital tools and technology across the procurement phase. We will set that out in the coming weeks in terms of our reform agenda and I will put the finer details on that during the period ahead.