Dr. Thomas McLoughlin:

On the herbicide tolerant genes, the Senator is right that at that time, 20 or 30 years ago, there was a concern that, for example, with oilseed rape the gene would flow from the pollen into related breed species and there would then be herbicide tolerant weeds that we could not control in Ireland. That did not happen. However, as I said, we have invasive species that came in, such as Japanese knotweed and others, and no one is concerned about them at all. I would call that the irony of ironies.