Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing: Discussion

Dr. Barbara Doyle Prestwich:

I think so. This is where we come back to the good communication strategy. The Senator might remember that, in 2018, we ran an international biotechnology conference at the Convention Centre Dublin. We tried to do as much public outreach on that as possible but we have to address the communication, which is key, and that is what we are here today to do. We are very grateful to have this opportunity to talk to all of the members here and to try to get the message across that some of those old arguments that are still being rolled out are not relevant to this technology. That is not to say there are not real concerns as well and that is what we are hoping to discuss.