Dr. Frank O'Mara:

As I said earlier, I believe the Department recognises that as well. Its representatives can answer much better than I can because they know the system much better than I do. However, there is a very complex European framework in this area that Ireland is part of. The Department also has to balance other views. We come at the issue from the science and technology point of view. As Deputy Carthy said earlier, if you go back 20 or 30 years, there was a very strong fear among consumers about these types of new technologies. That has changed to some extent. The whole Covid crisis was quite instrumental in building people's trust in science and in what science can do. We saw the rapid development of a vaccine based on mRNA, which brought that kind of language into people's daily use. I hope and actually do believe that there is a more mature attitude among people to the use of technology in dealing with the types of problems we are trying to address. They are difficult problems, such as the Senator has outlined. We want to increase food production, to reduce the impact on the environment and to improve livelihoods while we are doing so. Those three things can often pull us in different directions. If we have a technology that can help us get in the bullseye where they meet, it is a shame not to use it where appropriate.