Address by Mr. Noel Treacy T.D., Minister for Science, Technology& Commerce at the Teagasc Annual Walsh Fellowships Seminar Royal Dublin Society, RDS, Dublin on Monday 8th November 1999 at 4.30pm.

I am very pleased to attend this year’s Walsh Fellowship Seminar, named after the late Dr Tom Walsh, first Director of An Foras Taluntais (now Teagasc). This Seminar is just one of the hundreds of events organised throughout our country as part of Science Week Ireland.

This Seminar is a joint Teagasc/RDS activity and I would like to acknowledge the great contributions of both organisations to the development of science and technology in Ireland. The RDS, dating from 1731, can claim to be the oldest scientific organisation in the country and over the years was the originator of many of our current State institutions, such as the Botanic Gardens, the National Museum, the National Library, and the Veterinary College. Today’s seminar covered a very interesting range of agricultural and food topics. It also had an equestrian presentation with the intriguing title of ‘Effect of the rider on the kinetics of jumping horses’, which I am sure was of particular interest to the current President of the RDS, Col. Billy Ringrose, one of our former great Equestrian Show Jumpers.

I would like to compliment all fourteen students who performed today on the quality of their presentations. As in previous years, their delivery was clear and professional, they fielded questions very well, and they kept within the strict time discipline imposed by the chairmen. Science Week Ireland is all about communication.

Science Week Ireland is all about communication. It is a celebration of Science, Technology and Innovation in Ireland. During the Week, which is taking place this week i.e. from 7-14 November, people of all ages are being given a special opportunity to explore and experience Science and Technology through hundreds of events held nation-wide.

This is the third year of Science Week Ireland and I am pleased that it reaches a wider audience each year. It is organised as part of the Science, Technology and Innovation Awareness Programme, which is managed by Forfás on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The individual events are organised by members of the S&T community, whether employed in industry, academia, State sector or community or other groups.

Not only do events such as this demonstrate the excitement of science and technology, they also are a testament to the increasingly central role it plays in modern life whether it be at our workplace, in our homes or in our leisure activities. I believe that by increasing awareness of the importance and relevance of Science and Technology we will, as a nation also increase our scientific and technological literacy and this will allow Ireland be ready to exploit future challenges.

As I have just said, today’s Seminar is an excellent example of how to improve public awareness of science. In today’s media-driven world it is becoming ever more important that scientists learn to communicate effectively with the wider community. I wish all the students here today, well in their careers and hope that they will continue to contribute to Irish science in the future.

The Walsh Fellowships are an effective mechanism for introducing new science and technology into agricultural and food research. It links Teagasc’s applied programme to the more fundamental or basic investigations carried out in the universities. I will be mentioning proposals for the national biotechnology programme later in this address and in this regard I note that an increasing proportion of the approximately 40 new Walsh Fellowships approved each year are biotechnology-based.

At this point, I also want to acknowledge the support of the Agricultural Trust, publishers of the Irish Farmers Journal, for its sponsorship of the Young Researcher of the Year Award, which I look forward to presenting shortly. This of course, is just one example of the many sponsorships in the agri-food area in which the Agricultural Trust is involved.

This seminar is also the occasion of the launch of the new Spanish/Irish bilateral agreement for co-operation in research on food and agriculture, represented by INIA and Teagasc, respectively. I would like in particular to welcome (or as we say in Irish ‘Cead Mile Failte’) here this evening His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Jose Maria Sanz-Pastor.

Major developments in the component disciplines of science are often associated with particular centuries. Thus chemistry dominated the 19th century and physics the 20th. The 21st Century is predicted to become the Century of Biology – or more likely its sub-discipline Biotechnology. As a participant in the national biotechnology programme in the coming decades, Teagasc will have a key role to play in investigating and exploiting the many opportunities which biotechnology will present for developing the nation’s agri-food industry.

In national terms, biotechnology is one of the key enabling technologies for future industrial development. Our major export industries - food, chemicals and pharmaceuticals - are all biology-based. For these industries to continue to prosper, Ireland needs a strong, proactive biotechnology sector. As Technology Foresight Ireland highlighted ‘Virtually all analysts predict that biotechnology will be the basis for major economic growth’. If this opportunity is not grasped there would be a loss of new high-quality jobs, as well as many existing jobs, in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food and drink.

It has sometimes been argued that Ireland, as a small country, cannot justify a significant scientific research programme of its own. However, while our agri-food biotechnology programme should evaluate and adopt developments from abroad, we must also take into account the specific climatic, geological and geographic position of Ireland and thus the requirement for a national input. Agri-food is Ireland’s major industry and it is predicted that 70% of predicted growth in biotechnology in Europe will be in this sector. Given the importance of the sector to the national economy, the potential benefits from adopting biotechnology cannot be ignored. The Technology Foresight Report, recently published by the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, states that biotechnology will be ubiquitous in the agri-food industry in the early decades of the new millennium. The Teagasc research programme already contributes significantly in this area and a major expansion is planned for the future. Using biotechnology, improved starter cultures have been developed in Teagasc for the production of cheeses, yoghurts and other fermented dairy products. Progress has also been made in the development of probiotic bacteria, which have a protective effect on human and animal health when included in the diet. Biotechnology has also contributed to our understanding of reproductive fertility in our national dairy herd.

Teagasc proposals for a national agri-food biotechnology research programme are aimed at ‘Providing the capacity necessary to monitor, evaluate and harness appropriate biotechnology developments in crops, livestock and food production’. Some of the Teagasc proposals involve collaborative projects with universities, in which the Walsh Fellowships scheme would also play a part. The priority areas in the Teagasc agri-food biotechnology proposals include the following:

• Agronomic performance and environmental risks of transgenic crops
• Increasing the nutritive value of grasses and clovers
• Gene mapping and in vitro culture for plant breeding and propagation
• DNA diagnostic tests for plant and animal diseases, and food pathogens
• Fertility problems in high genetic merit cows
• Genetic markers for animal growth efficiency, and meat and milk quality
• Food cultures and metabolites to improve quality and safety
• Conversion of indigenous raw materials to value-added products
• Novel enzymes to improve quality and functional aspects of foods

As Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce with responsibility across two Government Departments of State i.e. the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Education and Science, I particularly welcome the collaboration between two key players in the “National System of Innovation” viz. the State through Teagasc and researchers in the Third Level Colleges. This coming together of research expertise will be an important component of our Post 1999 proposals for funding for Research, Technology and Innovation or RTI under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. The Plan is currently being finalised by Government and will be published shortly. I commend all involved here today, for their proactive approach.

Let me turn now to an issue which has been the subject of much publicity in recent times i.e. Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO’s.

The recently-issued report of the Chairing Panel of the National Consultation Debate on ‘Genetically Modified Organisms and the Environment’ has important implications for the national biotechnology programme, particularly in agri-food.

In line with the report, the Government policy is to pursue a positive but precautionary national policy on the release of GMOs to the environment, based on scientific risk assessment and management. The report notes that access to GM technology is critical to the future competitiveness of the Irish agri-food industry and that the potential benefits of adopting biotechnology cannot be ignored. Relying on our ‘Green/Clean’ image as our main marketing advantage will be insufficient in a more competitive world.

The main public concern regarding GM crops is their potential effect on the environment. For this and other reasons the EPA is the overall competent authority for the release of GM crops into the environment. The National Consultation Debate report recommends generic research (i.e. not tied to specific commercial products) on safety issues related to the deliberate release of GM crops. Such research would be independent (i.e. publicly-funded, such as by Teagasc and other State institutions) and would review and evaluate product data from biotechnology companies. The EPA’s Advisory Committee on GMOs could have a function in identifying areas of the publicly-funded research programme, supervising its implementation and evaluating the outcome. Appropriate areas for research could include horizontal gene flow, rates at which viral genes reacquire the capacity to be pathogenic and escape, baseline studies on natural populations, the ecological impact of deliberately-released GMOs, and the possibility of systematic differences between GM and non-GM plants.

In conclusion I would like to compliment Teagasc for organising this important seminar. I would also like to congratulate the students on their excellent presentations.

And finally, it is also my pleasant duty to now call upon His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Jose Maria Sanz-Pastor, to launch the Spanish/Irish bilateral agreement on agricultural and food research.