Sean Barrett (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank Senator Susan O'Keeffe for reintroducing W. B. Yeats to this Chamber which he graced for so many years. This is a wonderful project for which the Minister of State will have the support of everyone in the House, as Senators Susan O'Keeffe and Averil Power stated. There is excitement about it. I can inform the House that the Science Gallery which Senator Averil Power mentioned will be a franchise and the first will be located in London; therefore, there might be a TCD Science Gallery in all big cities. I endorse the comments in favour of Professor Patrick Cunningham and his work as the Government's chief scientific adviser.

This year the Trinity Monday discourse was on E. T. S. Walton, still the only Irish Nobel prizewinner in science. It was a wonderful occasion. We found a quote from Rutherford who was his helper in that great project and joint winner. He stated that in times of austerity in the United Kingdom, as they had no money, it was time for ideas. This echoes very much what the Minister of State seeks to accomplish.

Other speakers mentioned linking literature and the arts, in which we have a great track record, with the new developments in science. The division is entirely artificial. The former professor of music at TCD, Mr. Brian Boydell, who composed the wonderful television version of the national anthem which was played each night at the end of transmission before the advent of 24 hour broadcasting, was a geologist first and changed to music. Some jokers in TCD said he changed from rock to the classics.

I gather from very old teachers that in the 1920s we had rural science and nature study programmes in primary schools and that we also had language teaching, which we have moved out to make more room for the revival of Irish and so on. We now know that learning the Irish language from a book for ten or 14 years and never speaking it is not the way to do it and that changing this approach would free up more time. It is a pity we have a less broad curriculum in primary schools. The reintroduction of a science subject should be considered. I welcome Senator Susan O'Keeffe's suggestion that students be the ones to do this. They are young and enthusiastic, whereas the rest of us might seem to be 100 years old to young people when we go into a classroom.

That brings me to an issue on which I know the Minister of State has worked - mathematics. I support his efforts in this regard. Some of the institutions have not been as co-operative as they might be. I do not think the bonus points idea means anything. What we need are people who know a subject to teach it. I wonder whether we should move towards the Finnish model whereby one must have a Masters degree to teach a subject. One thing about the young people mentioned by Senator Susan O'Keeffe and others is that they know very quickly whether one is a real expert who is totally ad idem with the subject or whether a person did a degree in something else and is merely a few pages ahead in the schoolbook. Children aged eight, nine or ten years become clued in quickly.

Surveys show that the most popular teacher is the English teacher, which is probably because this teacher has the atmosphere of teaching O'Casey, Yeats and others. Serious discussions should take place between the Minister of State and the Department on the subjects in which we need a supply of teachers, including mathematics and the sciences. The job of the Department of Education and Skills and the universities is to produce these teachers. If there is not a proper mix between what the students and the Minister of State want and what the students are producing, what used to be called the H. Dip. in Ed. must be questioned.

I welcome private sector and business involvement. With regard to the genetics issue raised by Senator Feargal Quinn, the sugar company in Mallow and other places provided for the initial endowment for Professor George Dawson and the genetics department at TCD. The Moyne Institute located near here is called after the Guinness company. Sometimes the private sector in Ireland is inclined to ask for more subsidies and grants, but let them emulate those who put money in and offer bursaries and fellowships to people to study science, given the difficulties in the public finances.

Many people studying subjects such as genetics would endorse what Senator Feargal Quinn stated. There is a phobia about genetically modified food. Let us have a proper debate on the issue without the stridency. Perhaps the same applies to nuclear power. I asked Professor Holland, the professor of geology at TCD, about fracking and he believes it can be done without the dire environmental consequences its opponents fear. Let us have these rational discussions without the stridency. Perhaps an anti-science mentality epitomised such discussions in the past. The Young Scientist Exhibition is also important.

I will make one plea. We are developing many subjects, but, unfortunately - I say it against my own subject - it was the lack of a knowledge of economics in crucial places that caused the collapse in 2008. Therefore, it is a subject that also needs to be developed. We did not have the expertise when we needed it.