Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. As other speakers said, it is important that we move in the near future to full membership of CERN. It is an incredible organisation at the cutting edge of science. The health sciences showed us during the Covid years how important it is for countries to work beyond international borders. Scientific questions, health problems and crises no longer follow the linear boundaries of nation states but move far beyond them. If we are to advance scientific causes further, we need to work on a transnational basis with European partners and organisations like CERN.

In realm of cutting-edge science, we saw during the previous Dáil term Ireland's first satellite launch into space. Yet, the national aviation policy still speaks of things like commercial air traffic and cargo traffic. It does not refer to any of the new forms of aviation. I thank the Minister for recently visiting the University of Limerick, where he saw how aviation and undersea robotics are advancing. I hope that is an area on which he will give further leadership within his Department.

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