Sir, - I was amazed, on a number of fronts, as I read The Irish Times and other newspapers on November 7th. The Food Safety Board, announced by the Minister the previous day, contained not one food scientist. In fact, no member of the board could be described as an active scientist. To make matters worse, this omission went completely unnoticed.
Food safety is primarily a scientific issue. Can a board with no obvious expertise in this area hope to even begin to address the problems? Is it capable of assessing the advice it will receive? Can the public have any confidence in Irish food, when those who are best equipped to address the problems are excluded?
It is time that decision makers put aside the "marketing" approach, stop being concerned only with how things appear, and appoint those who have the skills for the job. Can the Minister and Government be so naive as to not realise the central role science plays in these issues? Window dressing measures will not restore confidence in food. This will only occur when some of our excellent food scientists are placed on the Food Safety Board. These people will equip it with a facility to understand the scientific issues at the heart of food safety.
We do not question the competencies of the individual members of the board as constituted, but the anti science bias will undoubtably compromise its effectiveness in the future. We would urge the Minister, as a matter of the utmost national importance even at this late stage, to appoint a practising Irish food scientist to this panel.
The issue however goes much further, and it is in this broader context that it is most frightening. An issue, which is so clearly based in science, is not seen as such by Minister, civil servant or journalist. This occurs only one week after the Government published its White Paper on science. It appears that there is a general lack of understanding, within government and the media, of the role of science and scientists in our technology driven world. This suggests that in addition to Hepatitis C, BSE etc, the public can expect to have many more health, food and environmental crises. - Yours, etc,
Chairman, Irish Research Scientists' Association,
Chemistry Department,
University College, Galway.