Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I endorse Deputy Ó Ríordáin's point on the challenge in gender and science. I am an engineer by training. Engineering is where science meets pragmatic application in many ways. We have a massive challenge in engineering to get balance; we are far from it. We do not have enough young women getting into the sector. If we did, I dare say that many of the challenges we have in our society would have been solved already. I know the Minister will agree.

My colleague, Deputy Bruton, and I sat through a few hours of the climate action committee this morning. It was a really interesting session. Professor O'Mara and his colleagues from Teagasc were in, as was Mr. Niall Ó Brolcháin, late of these Houses. He was a Senator many years ago. He is an expert in what is known as land use, land use change and forestry, LULUCF, one of the great challenges this State has, which is also a challenge right across the world. As of now, our land is both a carbon emitter and a carbon sink but it is a net emitter. When we talk about climate action in this country we use the 2018 baseline because when we were negotiating the programme for Government it was the latest data we had. Now science has told us the numbers in the 2018 baseline were not accurate and our land is actually a bigger emitter than we thought heretofore. It was a fantastic discussion which brought home to me and my colleagues on the committee the importance of evidence-based policymaking, based on science and numbers.

Many would say that politics and science do not or should not mix but I would argue they should. We do not have enough scientists involved in policymaking and if we can do anything to advance that we should do so. If we do so and if we try to bring about a culture of evidence-based policymaking on the back of scientific understanding, then it pulls the emphasis away from the norm of rhetoric and fear-driven legislation and policy that is often the case and has been the case in parliaments across the world

I wish to pay tribute, as others have, to those who are in the field. I will be parochial and mention that Deputy Quinlivan and I attended a briefing yesterday by Professor Norelee Kennedy of the University of Limerick, UL, who the Minister will know. The briefing outlined UL's strategy for research and for turning UL into a powerhouse of innovation and research. I pay tribute to Professor Kennedy and her team and to those in the Bernal Institute. I also want to address the great efforts of their compatriots on the other side of the city in the Technological University of the Shannon, TUS, who are doing ground-breaking research. It is this kind of research that will underpin the decisions we make as a country going forward and in respect of that great existential challenge we face about which colleagues across the House have spoken.

Last night I had the privilege of attending an event in Trinity College Dublin. Engineers Ireland hosted a lecture on a great Irishman named Charles Parsons from Birr, County Offaly. While the following accolade often goes to Nikola Tesla, one could say that Parsons invented the 20th century. The great innovations and genius of the man led to so many of the technological innovations that appeared in the late 19th century, particularly the steam turbine, which we still rely on to generate most of the electricity in our world today. The lecture was given by Mr. John Burgess and Dr. Bettie Higgs and I hope it appears online on the Engineers Ireland website. It was truly fascinating and it deserves to reach a wide audience.

We have done pretty well in the scientific arena as a country. There are people in our history like Mr. Parsons, Robert Boyle and Tyndall. Many of the great scientific thinkers of the last 150 to 200 years came from this country. This country will produce the great scientific thinkers of the next 200 years as well, on the back of the efforts we make as legislators to put in place the educational frameworks to enable our young people to get into the scientific arena and make the great discoveries that we cannot even imagine now but that will have to be made to solve this existential crisis we face. Those young people should take inspiration from the great people who have gone before. If they look at their stories and see what they achieved in their lives a long time ago with limited resources, they can be inspired to learn, create and deliver critical solutions that we need to save our planet.

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