Artificial Intelligence

14. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will report on the implementation of the guidelines for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the public service. [74401/26]

When the guidelines for responsible use of artificial intelligence, AI, in the public service were launched in 2025, it represented an important step in ensuring that Ireland could embrace opportunities of AI while maintaining public trust and accountability. The public rightly expects the Government to modernise services, reduce delays and make interactions with the State more efficient, and AI has the potential to do that. Will the Minister outline how those guidelines are being embedded into the public service and what progress is being made?

I thank Deputy Moynihan for the question. My Department is supporting the responsible and effective adoption of AI across the public service to enhance service delivery while safeguarding public trust. The guidelines provide public service bodies with a practical framework for designing, developing and deploying AI ethically, transparently and consistently with public service values. The guidelines are based on seven principles: human agency and oversight; technical robustness and safety; privacy and data governance; transparency; diversity, non-discrimination and fairness; societal and environmental well-being; and accountability. Responsibility for implementing the guidelines rests with each public service body, all of which are expected to incorporate them into the governance arrangements applying to relevant work programmes. As there is no one-size-fits-all solution, given the diverse range of applications that AI can be deployed in, implementation should reflect the nature, purpose and risk profile of each particular AI use-case. My Department has responsibility for a range of initiatives designed to support high-value AI adoption across government in line with the policy objectives and targets set out in the better public services strategy, the digital public services plan and the national digital and AI strategy. This includes the roll-out of generic AI capability across government over 2027 to ensure that all public service bodies can avail of shared, trusted AI digital building blocks. This will provide interoperable AI platforms and services that include tools for virtual assistants, summarisation and analysis of documents, as well as translation, transcription and efficient knowledge management. These technical tools will be supported by an AI advisory unit that will provide advice and expertise to guide effective deployment. As part of budget 2027, an additional €17 million was provided for the digital transformation fund to help design and deliver effective and efficient digital public services that utilise Al in a responsible and trustworthy way. This funding is in addition to the ongoing investment of €9 million in government digital infrastructure to support the transformation of public services to ensure the delivery of better public services. In addition, my Department is leading on the delivery of an updated public service data strategy, which will strengthen how data is governed, shared and used across the public service, creating the data foundations for Al adoption. I will go into more detail later.

I thank the Minister for that. When the guidelines were launched, the responsibility for implementation was placed on the individual public bodies. Will the Minister give an outline of the engagement that has taken place between those public bodies and their implementation of it since publication? We have seen considerable change in AI growth, with it coming on several generations in the meantime. Has that required changes to the guidelines? Have the guidelines and their implementation within the various public bodies been able to keep up to date with the quick growth of AI over the past year and half? Will the Minister give an overview of that?

It is interesting that the scope of the interest, activation and user uptake is very high. I am bringing a memo to the Government on this in the coming weeks, but to give an example, my Department is supporting the Institute for Public Administration's digital academy, which offers digital data and AI learning pathways for the public service in 2027. This will build significantly on the estimated 20,000 staff that have already participated in tailored AI training across the public sector. This is really significant when we think of the scale of uptake of training. It shows the breadth and level of interest that each public service body is taking to integrating the responsible use of AI guidance and using it in the service stream. To further enable the responsible and innovative use of AI, we will announce GovTech public service challenge areas and invite emerging technology providers to collaborate as well with the public service to accelerate innovative solutions to existing challenges. Work is also under way in my Department to determine the feasibility of a central AI procurement solution for the public service by the end of 2026. This is to give an integrated framework for greater adoption and centralised arrangements for the uptake of AI.

When the guidelines were launched, there were already promising examples of AI use in different bodies. For example, St. Vincent's hospital was using it for ultrasound scans, the Revenue Commissioners for routing queries from taxpayers, and the Department of agriculture to look at grant application errors and improving processing times. Will the Minister give some examples of where AI is now being implemented to improve efficiency and to make public services more accessible for the public? Finally, given that current public service negotiations are under way, to what extent is the use of AI and any efficiency and streamlining it could bring about, part of the conversation?

It is important to see it in a positive context. We have announced measures around AI skills, which the Minister, Deputy Lawless, is leading on but that applies to the public sector as well. We want to see opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, and that is happening, as we can see in the uptake with the IPA. There are some other cases apart from the ones referenced by the Deputy. There are huge opportunities in health transformation. The work the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is doing on digitalising our health system will have to have AI fully and properly integrated. It will bring huge opportunities for patient care, empowerment of patients around their health data, treatment and diagnostics. The opportunities are limitless really. I can give some examples. The Citizens Information Board has the AskCI chatbot, which verifies content for over 1,400 citizen information pages to help service users. The HSE nursing and midwifery renewable verification has robotic process automation technology for improved acceleration and verification of registrants licenses. Revenue uses an AI-assisted chatbot which is leveraging robotic process automation. The National Shared Services Office, NSSO, is using intelligent documentation process automation each month to validate medical certificates. In fact, we have countless examples of strong leadership and public service transformation happening across multiple areas. This is driving a better interface of the citizen with the State.