Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Coimisinéir. I thank her for her words of wisdom and for drawing attention to the fact the University Senators should be especially interested and grateful for the work she has done under the seventh framework. Some are in the Gallery, including Professor Cliona O'Farrelly from the Trinity College biochemistry department. She is interested in immunology also.

We must innovate. A cartoon shows two dinosaurs saying they are too big to fail, and we have heard this phrase far too frequently with regard to banking. The Leader drew attention to the problems he sees in his city of Waterford.

One will find them in traditional industrial centres such as Belfast, Derry, Waterford, as the Leader said, and Limerick. People must innovate. It is most important that the Commissioner keeps the momentum going. As she said, Ireland's success is linked to the nine out of ten top global companies coming here. They like an environment of innovation. They like meeting scientists, innovators and engineers. I am sure that innovation has influenced our new economy here much more than tax breaks or grants.

Science has been neglected and overlooked in Irish schools and teacher training colleges. I wonder if the Commissioner can do something to spur an improvement. Rural science and nature studies was a subject in primary schools in the 1920s and we need to return to that state. Not all academic work is based at a desk or in libraries. Imagine the release that many students could enjoy if they were released into the countryside as witnessed in the recent RTE programme "Secrets of the Irish Landscape" which was based on the work of people like Professor Frank Mitchell, Dr. Matthew Jebb and of course Robert Lloyd Praeger. That would be of interest to people in education who find the desk-based system unattractive.

I wish to discuss the neglect of sciences in teacher training. Is the H.Dip programme the correct way to train teachers if we want to develop a new interest in sciences? The neglect manifests itself somewhat in the problem of red tape discussed by the Commissioner that she is trying to abolish. When attempting to get through all of the red tap some scientists are tempted to downgrade their teaching work. That would be a serious mistake if people could "buy-out" their teaching using the Commission's research grants because we must produce the next generation of scientists.

I spoke to some Irish graduates in Cambridge. Of course, Ernest Walton, the only Irish Nobel Prize winner for science, came from there. Graduates, particularly the female ones, from Trinity College Dublin who studied at Cambridge remembered his lectures because he knew that physics was not a school subject up to 50 or 60 years ago. He took a special interest in how girls who had never studied physics adapted to their studies. They remembered him as their best lecturer and that he won a Nobel Prize. We are inclined to neglect lecturing and teaching. If we continue to do so then the next generation of scientists and innovators will be overlooked. Therefore, it is important that we reform aspects of the education system to reflect those dimensions.

As Senator Bacik said, recently we had a good discussion with the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, on the development of science and technology. He has the youth and enthusiasm for its development. The subject comes within the Commissioner's remit. We are concerned that picking winners sometimes can mean going to next year's race meeting with a two-year old race card. We need flexibility in the sector. It would enable us to drop programmes that do not work and introduce new ones. I appreciate that she has said that there is a need for returns and income from patents and royalties but provision should be made for some necessary blue skies research.

The Commissioner is most welcome. She is from the west of Ireland and so is an tUachtarain, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. The Offaly people barely got Barack Obama into office in time before his post went to the west of Ireland. I hope that her work precedes us and there is great interest in it now. As she will know, Mr. James D. Watson was in the National Botanic Gardens last Sunday week to unveil a memorial dedicated to the discovery of DNA and he has Tipperary links. There is a huge interest in science now but I would like to see it reach schools and teacher training. The Commissioner has undertaken a most important task and the track on which she has embarked upon is the correct one. I wish her well in her endeavours.