Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will endeavour to respond in the best way I can to the points raised. I genuinely acknowledge the contributions of my fellow Members of the Oireachtas. Hopefully I will be able to respond, and if I am not, Members should not hesitate to follow up with me.

Senator Mary White referred to a dual education system, and I wholeheartedly agree with the point she made. The example of the University of Limerick is the best national example of industry engagement by undergraduates where accreditation is given to the student for participation in industry, enterprise or on a community basis. That model should be replicated. Other universities or institutes of technology should take it as an example. It is for universities to do so, but I am in favour of the model.

I will contact Senator Deirdre Clune about a review of the ICT action plan after two years. I want to give an accurate picture of it. The same applies to the PhD candidate to whom Senator Clune referred. A PhD candidate is a student, technically speaking, and I am happy to liaise with the Senator on that issue.

I agree with Senator Feargal Quinn on the potential of the agricultural and food sector. It is one of the 14 sectors outlined earlier. We are looking at food, food innovation and, particularly, food for health. Teagasc and SFI have signed a memorandum of understanding to try to leverage new opportunities within the sector, something the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, and I signed off on some time ago. It presents an opportunity in terms of mapping areas opportunity onto the food sector and the agricultural sector. This is particularly true in respect of ICT and dairy expansion, where the employment of new ICT technology will be necessary for success. That is where we see a natural synergy between SFI and Teagasc.

With regard to GMOs, research on genetically modified organisms is already being carried out by Teagasc. A potato trial is under way within Teagasc. At this juncture, if we look at the trends in terms of global population growth, we must be pragmatic about the approach we take. I am expressing a personal opinion. Sometimes the issue of GMO gets tangled up with the biotechnology companies and the control of seed and intellectual property. We must have a rational and reasonable debate on the issue in a proper forum, devoid of some of the emotion that exists around the topic. I would welcome a rational, coherent and objective debate. There is potential for mapping ICT onto agriculture and developing higher-end food products, particularly in the area of probiotics and functional foods. The taxpayer, through SFI, has funded an alimentary pharma-biotic centre in Cork through Professor Fergus Shanahan, who was referred to by Senator O'Keeffe. Last week, Professor Shanahan was nominated as researcher of the year. That is the kind of excellence in research that we are carrying out in the area of food, and it will map onto dairy expansion and the potential of the agricultural economy. We recognise its importance.

The feedback on Science Week will be about capturing what the broadcaster and researcher Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin calls the zeitgeist. She called this a zeitgeist space where learning takes place, through events such as Science Week, for parents and teachers as well as for the children and students involved. It is about implanting new ideas in teachers to apply some of the learning from individual events in the classroom. In terms of feedback, the expectation is that teachers will take something from the events and implant that learning in the teaching experience within the classroom. There is no reason, in the current system, they cannot do so.

The topic of religion in schools concerns management and patronage structures. It is arguably for a board of management to determine the particular ethos of the school. That is why, in certain instances, religion becomes an important topic, depending on the ethos in a school. I agree that we need more primary school teachers engaging with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects at primary school. We must help teachers. All too often, it is easy to be critical of teachers and say that they spend too much time teaching English or art and not enough time on science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. We must create a supportive framework for teachers and give them the tools to do so.

Senator Thomas Byrne referred to physical sciences and hard sciences. Looking at the results in physics and chemistry, one can see there is no difference between the genders at national level. With regard to the school in question, I do not know the facts of the situation, but I imagine it may be a geographical issue or a localised issue. There are opportunities for people to be taught physics or chemistry no matter where they are in the country. If there are exceptions, I would like to hear about it. It may be a local variation. If we examine the breakdown of physics and chemistry in the leaving certificate, we find that, broadly speaking, there is no gender imbalance. I am happy to talk to the Senator about that point.

I was delighted to meet Senator Colm Burke at the medical research charities group conference this morning. We are a small country and we are still borrowing more than €1 billion per month. It is not possible for a small country in these economically constrained times to try to be all things to all people in terms of our research funding. It is appropriate to smartly specialise in an area in which we can get a societal and economic return. People may have a rational critique of the research prioritisation exercise, but I do not believe they cannot be funded through other sources if they feel they are left outside of the process. There are sources of funding other than research prioritisation.

In the health area, in drug synthesis and drug formulation, Ireland is investing heavily through the solid state pharmaceutical centre, SSPC, cluster at the University of Limerick, which brings in the pharmaceutical companies so vital to our industrial landscape. We are partnering with them through SFI to examine the concept of manufacturing from molecules to medicine, as the saying goes. We must be smart about how we specialise. Drug discovery is an area of importance.

We recognise that. If we are talking about an emphasis on these, we will be moving towards a manufacturing and processing synthesis crystallisation space. We are absolutely right to prioritise in that area.

There were comments about 0% corporation tax. Considering the foreign direct investment wins we have had in 2012, approximately 45% were predicated on research and development. I have an open mind on the corporate tax rate and, as a Minister of State, that type of designation is probably beyond my pay grade. We should debate the matter and I acknowledge the points made by Senator Barrett on how the research and development tax credit is utilised. The last budget set down clear markers on the research and development tax credit designation and there is no ambiguity about that.

Senator Crown mentioned religion and I spoke about governance in response to that. Science is a core subject, which I agree with, and the metrics would probably indicate that science is taught at post-primary level in approximately 85% to 90% of schools. I could stand to be corrected on the exact percentage, and although it is an option, science is still taken by the vast majority of students right up to leaving certificate level. I agree with the Senator that this is about people having a basic conceptual understanding of science because of its translational impact across a number of sectors, including solicitors and the other professions mentioned. I agree with the Senator's comments about a core module.

I do not see how the junior cycle could not provide for that kind of model, especially in short courses, and junior cycle students on short courses should be engaged in that kind of scientific inquiry. The idea might be grown from the conceptual perspective of "putting the finger on the hot plate", as people should have such a conceptual understanding of scientific endeavour. There would be an important outcome for people downstream in terms of how they grow, effectively, as people.

With regard to the food space, the Alimentary Pharmobiotic Centre in Cork is working with Teagasc, and it is one of the foremost probiotic research entities in the world. It carries out research on functional foods, gut health and mapping the gut "genome". Ireland is at the forefront of that scientific endeavour, and downstream permutations will include medicinal potential for food as a delivery mechanism. That is long-term thinking, with people like Professor Fergus Shanahan leading that kind of research. I will never forget the name Nicholas Callan as long as I live. The next time I step on the locomotive to Mallow or into the car, I will be thinking of Reverend Professor Nicholas Callan. I take that as a learning point and acknowledge the comments of Senator Moran in that respect.

Senator Barrett always provokes challenging thoughts and I like coming to the Seanad because it facilitates such debate. Senator Barrett drew on the "one page ahead" analogy with regard to Project Maths and the State is expending considerable resources on bringing teachers of mathematics - out of field maths teachers - through a professional diploma which is being delivered by the National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning, in collaboration with other entities like the National University of Ireland, Galway. We have invested heavily in bringing in those teachers and the taxpayer is funding this professional diploma in order to upskill the teachers and enable them to teach mathematics at post-primary level. I would be very surprised if the vast majority of teachers graduating from that course would not leap-frog some of the existing pure mathematics teachers in the system. That may sound controversial but it is what the evidence indicates, although we have not yet had a full analysis of how the course panned out.

In fairness to teachers in the post-primary sector, they have had to embrace serious challenges in dealing with Project Maths and some of the teachers have been resistant to it. I am confident that given the right levels of continuing professional development and supports for those teachers, as well as introducing the out of field mathematics teachers into the equation, some of the issues with the State Examinations Commission will be solved. Everybody acknowledges the turmoil created but we must still acknowledge that Project Maths is still in its early days, so there is work to be done.

There are still pockets of resistance by some teachers involved with Project Maths and we are trying to work with them as best we can in order to get through the existing issues, recognising the challenges they face. A teacher has to go from "chalk and talk" based on a model of past papers to a process of collaborative problem solving with students, and some teachers may have been teaching for 20 or 25 years. We must acknowledge that such a change can be difficult for teachers. I am hopeful that we can get through those challenges and I acknowledge the points.

I do not agree with the Senator's comments about a culture of amateurism. He was speaking specifically about pyrite issues and so forth. I will stand up for the officials with whom I interface in the public service on a daily basis. One can consider the negotiations around Horizon 2020, and although they have political leadership, the teams on the working groups are all public officials. These are civil servants who did an excellent job in negotiating these programmes on behalf of Ireland. I know the Senator is not painting with a broad brush with regard to public administration but sometimes we must acknowledge that there are excellent people within our public administration who have a very strong sense of policy outcomes and delivering based on Government objectives, etc. I do not know if I missed an issue when the Senator mentioned the culture of amateurism, and I stand to be corrected if I have missed a point.

Some 45% of our foreign direct investment wins last year were predicated on research and development. The challenge for us is to start examining the primary school system now to ensure we can have a throughput. There are intermediate measures at post-primary level, and I argue there is a certain responsibility on higher education institutions to start remodelling how they offer particular courses. Perhaps there is an onus on the institutions to consider the possibilities of more industrial engagement by undergraduates. If that is done there will be a positive consequence on the numbers of people staying here rather than emigrating, and particularly with people under 24 who are freshly graduated. At this stage, if those people had some sort of industrial experience or could interface with industry in some way at an undergraduate level, receiving accreditation for their efforts, many might take up opportunities at an earlier career stage.

I remain open to challenge on that point also at some stage.