Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and everyone involved in making Science Week happen. It is fantastic and gives us an opportunity to celebrate the role of science in our everyday lives. I commend the Creating our Future initiative by Science Foundation Ireland to encourage members of the public to make submissions into the public call for sources of research topics.

I also echo Senator Warfield's comments with regard to the Science Gallery and the dismay many people felt on hearing it is closing. I would be interested to hear the Minister's response to Senator Warfield's questions on the state of play now.

We can all agree that Covid-19 has really hurtled scientists into the mainstream. The lingo of science has entered our common parlance. Of course, with that has come the backlash against scientific knowledge and expertise. Sometimes it feels like perhaps we are surrounded by self-declared scientists and experts, as are our inboxes. It would be remiss of me to reflect on Science Week without reflecting on the state of our further and higher education sector, which is creaking at the seams due to a dire lack of funding. It is certainly not the first time I have spoken on this matter and I doubt that it will be the last. Funds are going into this, that and the other but, while short-term funding is welcome, the sector needs a long-term and viable funding option. It has been calling out for that. The Cassells report was launched in 2016, which was quite some time ago by all standards. It is time that we had an answer to the funding crisis in the sector. I know of STEM students doing labs in laboratories that are woefully out of date and not up to standard. If we are talking about Science Week, having world-class scientists and laboratories and the wonderful impact that scientists have on our everyday lives, then we must invest in those scientists during their training and learning. We need a resolution to the funding crisis.

Given that we are discussing Science Week, it would be wild of me not to discuss the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association and its move to ballot for better pay. The association highlights the essential role that medical scientists play in Covid testing and screening services. My colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, stated that, if we were serious about building a best-in-class health service, then we needed expert lab workers to stay in the sector. It is not a surprise that there is a ballot for industrial action. A number of long-term industrial issues in the sector predate Covid-19, but the pandemic has brought into sharp focus the great work that medical scientists do all of the time. The Minister for Health and the HSE need to recognise this contribution. Medical scientists are unseen members of Ireland's front line and have played a vital role in addressing the health emergency. Their workloads have shot up drastically throughout the pandemic, particularly in light of the significant shortage of such scientists across the public health service. All that the medical scientists are seeking is recognition of, and respect for, the hard work they do. Approximately 70% of diagnoses made by clinicians are based on test results carried out by medical scientists. Healthcare cannot be achieved without the work of a medical scientist. For quite some time, there have been more vacancies in laboratories than there have been graduates to fill them. As such, it does not take much to realise that there will be a breaking point. We need to address pay parity as a matter of urgency to hold on to our recent graduates. We need career progression to retain our bright and hard-working scientists. They are fundamental to every area of healthcare from diagnosis to infection and from cross-matching blood transfusions to cancer diagnoses. The shortage has led to outsourcing much of our testing capacity to the US and UK. We need to do more to get these highly skilled scientists to stay in the system in order that we can deliver best-in-class healthcare. Deputy Duncan Smith has written to the Minister for Health and the CEO of the HSE asking them to support these front-line workers, whose demands for pay parity and basic decency must be met. It would be remiss of me to stand up and not speak about a workers' rights issue.

It would also be remiss of me not to speak about some other of our medical staff, in particular student nurses and the other various medical undergraduates who are working in our healthcare system, often holding it up. They are not getting fairly treated or remunerated for the work they do.

I cannot discuss Science Week without speaking about fossil fuels. The news of Equinor's withdrawal from Ireland due to planning issues with offshore wind infrastructure is a major concern that needs to be addressed by the Government. A great deal needs to be done in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. We need to see serious investment in a suite of technologies. According to Wind Energy Ireland's analysis, "carbon pricing, long duration storage and green hydrogen will eliminate the need for fossil fuels in the Irish electricity system." The Minister of State needs to take the message to his Government colleagues that there needs to be a Government intervention that will give effect to these projects and optimistic modelling.

I am sure everyone saw Ms Mary Robinson yesterday when she spoke emotionally about COP26 and her experience there, with people taking the climate crisis seriously. I will finish with her words: "You can't negotiate with science."

I thank the Minister of State for attending for this debate.