Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss Science Week 2025, whose theme this year is "Then. Today. Tomorrow" and how past knowledge informs present and future science. I commend Science Foundation Ireland, now Research Ireland, on its vision to establish Science Week 30 years ago. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and the Minister for the continuing investment in STEM subjects, personnel and facilities.

Essential to the study of science is a quest for knowledge: challenging past theories, proving theories and improving outcomes. It also involves experimenting with variables – for example, temperature, light, dark, moisture, drought, age, gender, ethnicity, wellness, illness and so on – changing them and then examining the new outcomes.

My experience and love of science began, definitely 50-plus years ago, in St. Seachnall's school in Dunshaughlin, County Meath, with the very simple concept of the nature table.

I hope we can go back there at some stage. That was followed afterwards with the expansion to biology, chemistry and maths in Cabra, Dublin 7. Then, down the road from here, I studied life sciences with a degree in pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin. I studied genetics, physics, statistics, botany and all of the different “ologies”, including physiology, microbiology and zoology. That continued on to the pharmaceutical sciences where, in our final year, we were let loose on patients in St. James’s Hospital for our practice of pharmacy.

Common to every branch of pharmacy that we studied along this journey was the ability and necessity to question at every step. We were encouraged and, in some cases, demanded to question past theories, prove a theory and improve on past outcomes. This involved a lot of messing around in the labs, to the chagrin of many of the lecturers who at the stage feared they might have to call the fire services. The memories of Friday practical sessions in pharmaceutical chemistry with projects, as well as Ms Esmond’s mixed-bag interrogations, haunt me to this day.

When I entered the world of community pharmacy after graduation, the curiosity continued. In order to help patients effectively in the pharmacy – Deputies who have gone into a pharmacy for assistance with over-the-counter medicines might not know this – there are at least five basic questions we must ask in order to come up with a solution. We must ask about the who; the what; the how; the action; any other medication; whether there is a child aged under two; and whether there is a pregnancy. Preparing prescriptions involves more in-depth questioning of doctors, nurses, carers and hospital teams, all to improve health outcomes. Long may that curiosity and questioning continue to ensure that these best outcomes are achieved.

It is fair to say that science was never meant to be followed. Its very essence, from the time of Archimedes, Galileo, Hippocrates and Pasteur to former influential lecturers Des Corrigan and Ingrid Hook, was always rooted in curiosity and questioning. In 2020, a most worrying development arose with the outbreak of a new virus, followed by a new gene therapy, messenger RNA, mRNA, therapy. The instructions were to follow the science. If people asked any question, despite having a scientific background, they were labelled as, perhaps, a conspiracy theorist and vilified. Now, new and disturbing peer-reviewed research and evidence on this gene therapy is available from Italy, Japan and the US. It must be investigated and followed up on in the true spirit of science. Analysis is also being carried out on recent CSO data into medical mortality rates in the 15 to 24 age category. Again, this is science-based and it must be questioned and followed up on.

In accordance with the objectives of the programme for Government, Ireland aims to be a centre of excellence in research and development, particularly in the areas of healthcare and technology. In these endeavours, we must embrace and encourage curiosity and questioning continuously. Public-private partnerships and industry collaborations in every area of science must be clearly and unambiguously advertised as such to ensure that informed decisions can be made by citizens and the Government on behalf of the taxpayer.

To go full circle, back to childhood, may we create environments where children’s curiosity can be supported and satiated, informed by facts and not ideologies.

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