Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It seems from that statement that Teagasc is disavowing the Dublin Declaration, which is interesting. Nobody, certainly not me, has suggested that the people involved in the declaration were not scientists, only that they are scientists who are fatally compromised. The conflicts of interest that I have read into the record in my initial statement are from Teagasc's briefing document, which was accessed by Greenpeace through a freedom of information request. It seems obvious to me, and certainly to Greenpeace and The Guardian, that Teagasc is well aware that there is a conflict of interest here. I would like to quote what Mr. Ederer, the chief author of the declaration said because while Teagasc has found itself compromised, it has also managed to involve a Minister of State in being compromised. He wrote:

The Dublin summit and the Dublin Declaration was the first piece of utilisable science they have received in all their four years of commission work ... We need high ranking politicians at these launch events. What started the coverage in Ireland is not the brilliance of our science but the fact that we had a minister and a commissioner there.

I do not know what that means but as a legislator and as somebody who is proud to be a public representative in Ireland and who is proud of our belief in science, trust and data, we should find that out. We need to hold Teagasc to account for involving our Minister of State in that.

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