{"id":293893,"date":"2026-02-12T08:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293893\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:52:07","slug":"global-computer-shortage-could-affect-civil-service-hospitals-and-gardai-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/293893\/","title":{"rendered":"Global computer shortage could affect civil service, hospitals and garda\u00ed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hospitals, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> and Government<\/a> departments are among hundreds of public service bodies that could be affected by a global shortage of computers and laptops caused by artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI).<\/p>\n

Agencies that help run the State have been warned they could face higher prices for laptops and may have to start using pre-owned devices, with industry experts warning the shortage is expected to last for two years. <\/p>\n

Other agencies that could be affected include the HSE<\/a>, local councils, universities and State agencies such as Bord Bia<\/a>, the Arts Council<\/a> and Tusla<\/a>, the child and family agency. <\/p>\n

Massive facilities filled with supercomputers to train AI models are causing a global shortage of the technology used to create memory and storage on ordinary laptops and computers. <\/p>\n

The demands of these so-called AI \u201cgigafactories\u201d are disrupting technology supply chains all over the world. The shortage has forced the Office of Government Procurement<\/a> (OGP), which tries to save the State money when agencies buy goods and services, to issue a warning to public service bodies. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the exact level of impact and any possible mitigation strategies are yet to be fully understood, the outlook from the industry and from industry analysts suggests that this disruption may be experienced for a period of up to two years with possible impacts to pricing and availability of manufactured personal computers,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

It said it was trying to find out what impact the shortage will have on \u201csupply outlooks, pricing implications and available mitigation options\u201d.<\/p>\n

The OGP said the supply issue was affecting Windows desktop and laptop computers, and will impact manufacturers such as HP<\/a>, Dell<\/a> and Lenovo<\/a>. It will make the price of computers rise, while supply falls.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside the Arts Council: A \u2018blind\u2019 board, \u2018divided\u2019 management and ignored staff concernsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The OGP said public service bodies were \u201cstrongly advised\u201d to examine the terms and conditions of the contracts they have with IT suppliers to see how feasible it might be to terminate an agreement. It was suggested public bodies could try to use a \u201cforce majeure\u201d clause to free themselves from the contracts. <\/p>\n

Public bodies were also told they should take legal advice if a supplier suddenly ends a contract with them. Some of the most important public bodies in the country have also been advised to consider using \u201cremanufactured\u201d laptops because of the shortage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hospitals, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and Government departments are among hundreds of public service bodies that could be affected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,218,22810,97853,72,97729,1523,4518,2120,61,60,1304,140239,53],"class_list":["post-293893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-arts-council","tag-bord-bia-irish-food-board","tag-business","tag-dell-computer","tag-government","tag-hp","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lenovo","tag-office-of-government-procurement","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}