Artificial Intelligence
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Malcolm Byrne (FF), Wicklow-Wexford

I very much welcome the Minister's approach on this. It is critical we bring the public with us and, as he said, that it be cross-government. Will he consider public information campaigns to make people aware of the possibilities and challenges? He and I will probably remember the famous ads, "I don't know what a tracker mortgage is", so that people could understand financial products. We need to look in a similar way at artificial intelligence and have people sitting on the back of a bus saying, "I don't know what an algorithm is", and to get an understanding and explanation of that. The more understanding there is in society of the potential of the new technologies, the more it will inform those in business and in the public services about the opportunities and challenges.
I welcome the AI summit this October. It is a real opportunity to show Ireland as a leader in this space. The Government is taking the correct approach.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19