Author Dan Brown said that Ireland would be a "fascinating place to set a book" and that he may consider basing at least part of a future book here.

Speaking at the Web Summit he said: "I have always been fascinated in the conflicts that religions causes. This would be a fascinating place to set a book."

The Da Vinci Code author was speaking ahead of delivering a talk on the topic “Will science kill God?”. He said technology could have as much of an impact on spirituality as organised religion in the coming years.

“It’s a topic that is absolutely fascinating to me because I really do believe that technology is going to affect our spirituality as much as religious leaders and religious texts in the coming decades. I think the changes will be enormous,” he said.

Brown fielded questions on his next novel, which will be part of the Robert Langdon series, but was not drawn on when it would be published.

“My book is much closer than five years, I promise you that - much, much, much closer. I haven’t announced a thing,” he said. “I’m deep in the middle of it. I’m excited about it, it’s kind of a new world for me.”

Brown said he would be staying in Ireland for a few days to see some of the country.

When questioned on the abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church, he said it was a travesty and heartbreaking.

“It’s heartbreaking of course when the people that are the moral leaders, that are supposed to be our spiritual guide posts, have those sorts of human foibles, that’s heartbreaking,” he said. “At the same it’s entirely understandable. A church like any organisation is made up of people, and people are imperfect and I don’t think it’s any more shocking to find that sort of abuse in a large organisation such as the church as it would be in a large corporation. People are flawed, therefore the church is flawed.”

Brown also revealed his favourite book was the Christian Bible, admitting that it was a strange answer.

“The Christian Bible is a source of enormous interest to me and of course enormous fascination,” he said. “I don’t agree with all of it but the fact that a large portion of our species takes it as divine truth is of enormous interest to me.”