Artificial Intelligence
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

The new digital and AI strategy is not about climate change. I think there are five references to climate in the entire document. It is not about protecting children or artists. It is not about any of those things. It is about a commitment to "strengthening Ireland’s position as a digital leader", seemingly without regard to the negative impacts AI is having in our society. The Minister of State has confirmed the Department has not even done an assessment. The Government's approach is to go full steam ahead with AI. It suggests we have to embrace this technology and do what the big tech companies are telling us without even assessing the impact that will have on our climate. The emissions of all the big tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, are through the roof. Not only are they far off their targets, which are going down, but their emissions are going up dramatically, largely because of investment in AI and the massive energy usage that goes with that.
They are also miles off their supposedly adjusted figures. The real figures are going high.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24