Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have already had contact with Dr. McLoughlin, which aroused my interest in this area, so I asked for its inclusion on the work programme. I thank the Chair and the committee for accepting that. Today is a beginning and more an educational process for us. In the second session, in which we will have Teagasc and the Department before us, we will be able to carry on and query them based on the information we will have gathered from the witnesses in this session.

I have a couple of questions. To the witnesses, who are all professionals in this area, they might sound very naive. I am starting from square one on this and educating myself as much as anything else. The kernel of the issue I see, from reading the witnesses' opening statements and from their presentations, is that, based on the European Court of Justice ruling, the GMO directive, in the witnesses' opinion, should not include CRISPR-Cas9 because, in layman's terms, as I read it, GMO technology involves bringing in outside DNA or combining two unrelated organisms, whether plant, animal or whatever else, whereas with CRISPR there is no outside influence.