28-05-2025
Event to debate AI risks, potential for unemployed people
The risks and potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for unemployed people will be debated at the annual delegate conference of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).
The conference, which takes place in Dublin, will focus on the potential affects of AI, digitalisation and technological change on the world of work and public services amid potentially dramatic changes to the nature of work and accessing employment.
Delegates will debate a motion calling on the Government to ensure any use of AI in the public employment service involves service users in the decision making and evaluation processes of its usage.
Another motion will call on the Government to keep its promise to ensure that the Living Wage replaces the National Minimum Wage.
Delegates will urge the Government to ensure that unemployed people have access to the full range of information, services and supports that are available to them when they become unemployed or sign on.
Additionally, the INOU will call for the benchmarking of all social welfare rates at a level that is sufficient to lift people above the poverty line and to reverse the doubling of the penalty rate for people on a jobseekers payment, introduced in 2024.
The conference will be opened by Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary.
"Digitalisation and technological change is something that has become a driving force for my department," Mr Calleary said.
"In addition, our public employment service is learning and evaluating where generative AI can best support the delivery of employment services to jobseekers and to employers," he added.
