Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is good to be here discussing something as bright and exciting as the Euroscience Open Forum. I believe this debate is being held at the suggestion of Senator Quinn for which I thank him. I also thank him for his contribution to getting Dublin to host the event. It will be a wonderful event - the Minister of State has described it as the equivalent of the Olympic Games.

The Euroscience Open Forum was founded in 1974, which is not long ago. It had 42 academies attached to it then and that has increased to 72. We are expecting approximately 5,000 visitors. It is not about those kinds of numbers but about the prestige and profile in science and technology it will give Dublin and Ireland. We need to build that profile because while we have a rich cultural heritage we also need to show we can cut it in the science and technology area. I am glad that while Euroscience Open Forum has always stood for research and technology, it has been expanded to include the humanities and the arts. Our capacity to be creative and see beyond the constraints should allow us in this case to be better at mixing the humanities, arts and science than other countries which might not have the same creative capacity. In that perhaps we can excel both on this occasion and also into the future.

The forum offers the opportunity to demystify and make more attractive the idea of science. As somebody who qualified as a food scientist, much of what was taught as science in school was quite limited. From anecdotal evidence it seems that while some teachers try very hard to make it really interesting, they still struggle with the curriculum. They also struggle with health and safety restrictions preventing children from doing certain experiments. They are desperate to get their hands dirty and desperate, as Deputy Power said, to find a way into the area. However, at the basic fundamental level perhaps only two students get a chance to put something in a bottle and shaking it to see it change colour, while the other 30 sit and watch. That simply will not work and children want to do it for themselves. We know from science museums and other such places that children will rush to participate in an interactive activity. At an open day at my daughter's school, Ursuline College, the teachers had put together a great selection of things for the children coming to view the school to have a go at. They were all really excited and there was a buzz coming into the room, which proves my point.

I pay credit to the incredible work of the Young Scientist Exhibition, which was well ahead of the curve in terms of understanding children's interest in and capacity for science. I sincerely hope the Young Scientist Exhibition is involved in the forum. Even if not, I believe it offers great potential for us to build. Perhaps the Minister of State in conjunction with the Minister for Education and Skills can investigate using that area as a springboard for greater things into the future.

I am delighted to hear of the "science hack" day that will take place during this event. I love the idea of a 36-hour all-day and all-night event - perhaps some politicians might join them - as they try to find solutions to real life problems. I would like to know if the euro crisis will be on the agenda and if the Minister of State is going to be there, we would like an answer. I also love the idea of the author, Brian Greene, teaming up with the composer Philip Glass, in what is described as a futuristic reimagining of the classic Greek myth set in outer space about a boy who challenges the awesome power of a black hole. Here we have exactly that kind of creative and imaginative approach to science. If that approach were taken in schools, the black hole and all that goes with it would no longer be a boring piece of paper but would be an event that children would go home and discuss with their parents. They might even talk about themselves being involved in science.

There is also A Man in Half, the gripping drama of suspense, terror and humour, inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This is the way forward for science. Last year's World Economic Forum report indicated that students here are failing in mathematics, physics and chemistry. However, at a time when we know our children are bright and capable and with an education system which - despite the problems we have - is still pretty good, they are still failing. It is not the children who are failing, but the system is failing the children. As public representatives we go around the schools and see the children's bright shiny faces and see the enthusiasm. We must conclude the system is failing them rather than them failing.

I love that science in this case will be reaching out well beyond its narrow remit with tours, trails, buskers, installations and also things such as the exploration of music and the brain. Yesterday I was involved in the launch of the inaugural Yeats Day in Sligo. However, with our great cultural hats on, we had not thought about science and perhaps next year we could have some food aspect. As a food scientist it did not occur to me, but it has now. We have nine bean rows and hives for honeybees. At the very least I am sure we could find some way. That is where we need to start building the science in, and with our great creativity we can do something.

In third level colleges, the students who make it through the system are reaching out beyond the traditional areas. Some months ago I attended a presentation in Sligo IT. A student there, Anthony Blake, is trying to work out a cost-effective anchoring solution for the offshore energy industry, called a dynamically embedded plate anchor. If Anthony Blake and his colleagues crack this, it will revolutionise how the offshore energy industry works. He is in Sligo trying to work this out for the rest of the world. If he cracks it, it will save enormous amounts of money and will make offshore energy much more cost effective and efficient. John O'Toole is looking for cracks in bones using acoustic emissions. Robert Carroll is looking at the development of first-generation portable system for the analysis of micro-damage in the behaviour in bone. Joe Hynes is working on the engineered restoration techniques for degraded raised bogs. These are the realities of what is going on once children get through second level.

I am involved in discussions over how Sligo IT and the local secondary schools can come together in order to display to children the kind of work they are doing. These students are in their early 20s and have a much better capacity to communicate with our children than those of us who are somewhat older. We need to get those young students to get the students four, five or six years behind them enthusiastic about the potential of the STEM subjects, namely, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and let them know that is where the future lies. As Senator Power has rightly said it would be great to use sport as a way into science and it would be even better if we had great sportspeople to endorse that. We have our own champions in every region. We have them in all the ITs and in the universities. Can we find a way in which we can encourage them to be champions for science and technology locally?