As if nothing was wrong...

THROUGHOUT this week and last week Government chief scientific advisor Dr Barry McSweeney declined to return daily calls from the Irish Examiner.

Indeed, he spoke publicly to no newspapers or other media outlets and continued on with the business of representing Ireland’s entire scientific and research community as if nothing was wrong.

Then on Thursday, as questions about the authenticity of his PhD deepened and more and more foreign academics piled on criticism, he finally responded.