Ireland fails to keep up with scientific elite

IN all the excitement of the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider nobody mentioned that Ireland is one of the few European countries which isn’t a member of CERN — the European organisation for nuclear research.

How are we supposed to have a knowledge economy and promote science if we are not members of one of the world’s most important scientific organisations?

In recent days the OECD has published a report showing Ireland is near the bottom in levels of expenditure on education. It showed the percentage of GDP spent on education has fallen during Fianna Fáil’s tenure in power.

And that is before the predicted budget cutbacks next month are taken into account.

This year’s CAO offers showed many students don’t see good career prospects in science and technology and are opting out of science in second and third-level. Small wonder then that Ireland opts out of membership of international scientific organisations which could provide employment and research opportunities for Irish science graduates. On the release of the Junior Cert results, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said he is encouraged by the numbers of Junior Cert students taking science.

Sorry, minister, but Junior Cert students shouldn’t need to be encouraging you — it is your job to encourage them.

And some positive encouragement would be for Fianna Fáil to show how serious it is about promoting science by making Ireland a member of CERN.

Jason Fitzharris

Rivervalley

Swords

Co Dublin