THE GOVERNMENT embargo on recruitment and promotion is causing the loss of top food scientists and researchers, according to Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle.
The head of the research and farm advisory service said there were enormous opportunities for food and technology research but the staff embargo was causing huge problems as the loss of one or two key people could undermine an entire research programme.
“If you lose expert staff you can’t replace them and, if you lose one or two people in a key area, it undermines a whole research programme.”
He said this had happened in Teagasc and was continuing to happen as top scientists were offered better positions elsewhere and Teagasc could not offer promotions to encourage them to stay.
“I don’t think this is fully appreciated in the Department of Finance, that you can’t simply substitute people. You have people who are very highly specialised in particular areas and they are not that substitutable in other areas.”
The Government embargo can be lifted in particular circumstances but Prof Boyle called for more flexibility.
He said progress in technology had stalled in recent years, partly because governments had cut back on spending on technology and innovation.
“They are leaving it to the private sector and the private sector has invested in some areas but not in others.”
Prof Boyle said investment in research more than paid for itself. “It’s an investment, like an investment in roads, but the rate of return is much higher from research.”
He pointed to the example of Dubliner cheese. Teagasc worked with Carbery to develop the product and still received a royalty from its involvement. He said it was now working with the Irish Dairy Board on developing a new type of cheese.
Prof Boyle was speaking after he met a group of international scientists on a tour of Irish food research facilities around Dublin. It was held to mark the opening of the EuroScience Open Forum in the capital today.
The group visited the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, University College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology in Cathal Brugha Street to hear about developments in food and technology research.
Bord Bia chief executive Aidan Cotter told the group that Ireland was a world leader when it came to carbon footprinting its farms.
“By the end of this year, most of our 32,000 beef farms will have been carbon footprinted and soon we will begin to roll out the measure across all 18,000 dairy enterprises,” he said.
“No other country anywhere in the world is carbon footprinting its farms on what is in effect a national scale and doing so in a process of measurement, feedback and continuous improvement.”
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney met the group at a Bord Bia dinner in Trinity College Dublin last night where they sampled Irish produce sourced from sustainable and quality-assured farms and artisan producers.
