Now in its seventh year, Science Week Ireland - the State's annual celebration of all things scientific - is under way with a familiar mix of events emphasising the lighter side of science. It includes 250 presentations, exhibitions, lectures and entertainment aimed at engaging the curious of all ages.
Organised under the recently launched Discover Science and Engineering programme managed by Forfás, it is the Government's showcase undertaking associated with the public understanding of science.
The necessity to appeal to the widest possible audience means the Science Week programme takes a decidedly populist, almost whizz-bang approach. There is no criticism in this of the organisers who clearly face an uphill struggle to convince people that science can indeed be both enjoyable and understandable.
Too many write the subject off as tedious and difficult, dismissing it as being beyond their abilities. Our young people, in particular, seem to be taking this view, given the precipitous drop in the numbers of students taking science in the Leaving Cert and at third level.
Science Week is the official attempt to find an antidote to this malaise. There is a hard-nosed rationale for tackling the problem given the Government's stated aim of developing a knowledge-based economy here, one grounded upon scientific discoveries, research and development.
The Government is putting €2.54 billion into the hands of third level and private sector researchers via the National Development Plan 2000-2006 to help make this new economy a reality. This substantial investment is welcome even if long overdue but why is the State so reluctant to make a comparable investment in our young people, the very resource that will make the knowledge economy take hold?
If our educational system cannot attract students and produce the graduates, a society driven by innovation will not emerge here. The independent Task Force chaired by Dr Danny O'Hare and set up to devise ways of attracting our students back into the sciences made a range of proposals that remain largely ignored by Government and grossly underfunded.
State monies going into the upgrading of our secondary school science laboratories are ludicrously inadequate for the job. Science Week Ireland itself has struggled along year after year with a low budget that prevents it from becoming the high profile event it deserves to be.
Greater investment is needed to bring students back to the sciences.