David McWilliams

It's as if we in Ireland, it's as if we've taken some drug that we have suspended our critical faculties

And rather than listen to all these things and say, this is a warning and this is a signal and look at the amount of companies we'd have to produce, what we're doing is we're just chomping.

You know, interestingly, we started at...

a discussion of a drug that was a reflection, arguably, of ill discipline, that you eat too much, you drink too much.

You don't take into account, as you said, the long-term consequences of your short-term gluttony and your appetite.

This is exactly the same.

And we may well, John, turn into a nation of sleepwalkers.

And that's, I think, where we're going.

This next segment is a paid partnership with Skills2Advance, an initiative of SOLUS, the ETBs, and the Government of Ireland.

We've talked a lot recently about artificial intelligence, what it might mean for jobs, for productivity, and for the wider economy.

But there's a gap between the hype and the reality.

Most people aren't being replaced by AI.

They're being asked to work alongside it.

And this raises a more practical question.

How do individuals and businesses actually build the skills to use AI effectively?

Not just in theory, but in everyday work.

in a way that's useful, responsible, and grounded in real-world application.

That's where the idea of micro-qualifications comes in.

Short, focused training designed to help people understand AI, apply it, and make sense of what it can and cannot do.

To explore that and how these programs are being rolled out across Ireland, we're going to look at what's happening on the ground and what it means for the future of work.