Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Tánaiste and the Bill. It is quite likely that there will be a great deal of discussion about many past Irish scientists, but Ireland has never been a scientific country. I attended Newbridge College at which Fr. Casey was my science teacher and which had one of the best laboratories of any school in the 1950s. Fr. Casey was later appointed professor of science at Maynooth. Woe betide anybody at Newbridge College who did not know about Boyle's law which was formulated by Sir Robert Boyle, a famous Irish scientist. I accept that there have been famous Irish scientists in the past, but they were few and far between.