Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 June 2023
236. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on Ireland's place as a leader in Europe's digital policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30422/23]
View answerIt is my and this Government's ambition for Ireland to remain a digital leader at the heart of European and global digital developments.
Our National Digital Strategy "Harnessing Digital: the Digital Ireland Framework" sets out a roadmap to drive the digital transition across the economy and society, with progress seen across enterprise, skills, infrastructure, and public services.
In addition, there is strong alignment between the EU's Digital Decade 2030 Policy Programme and Ireland's recently published White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 regarding digitalisation.
We are ranked 5th in the EU Digital Economy and Society Index but we must continue to drive the agenda and strive to keep pushing ahead with our ambitions across all of the enterprise sector.
We have ambitious targets across Government under the National Digital Strategy. In my own Department, for our enterprise sector, our aim is for 90% of SMEs to have achieved basic digital intensity by 2030 and 75% of all enterprises to be using cloud, AI and big data in the same timeframe.
Our strong position in digital policy also comes from the fact that many of the world's most popular digital services and technology companies choose to establish their European bases here. Moreover, some of the most important digital regulators are here, given our position at the centre of the Single Market. We take our obligations very seriously and have continued to invest in our regulatory framework.
Within Europe, Ireland will continue to make the case for a balanced and optimal approach to digital regulation focusing on striking the right mix between the necessary regulation and the need to foster innovation and competitiveness.
To further demonstrate our leadership in digital policy, in the first half of 2024, Ireland will take the chair of the Digital 9+ (D9+) grouping of countries. The D9+ is an informal, strategic grouping of the more digitally advanced EU Member States whose aim is to exchange opinions and best practices on different areas of action related to EU’s digital transformation.
