The Republic may be facing a "national crisis" because of a shortage of science, engineering and technology students, the body which represents American multi-nationals warned yesterday.
The American Chamber of Commerce, which represents hundreds of firms, said the shortages posed a serious threat to Ireland's competitiveness. The chamber is setting up a working group, made up of leading US and Irish business people, to work with the Department of Education on the issue.
The warning was issued as the organisation published a report on the problem, written by psychologist Dr Maureen Gaffney. She said schools and policy- makers were failing to convince children about the attractiveness of science.
She said they were not able to change the perception among students that science meant spending most of your life in a lab "testing samples".
The Department of Education was grappling with the problem, she said, but the pace of reform was too slow. If not tackled, the economy could "go into a state of gradual decline".
The report is titled "Industry Supporting Innovation in Education in Science and Technology".
The Tβnaiste, Ms Harney, speaking in Dublin where the report was released, said science had to be made more accessible and understandable for young people or thousands would turn away from the area each year.
She said it was important to get the brightest science graduates into teaching. However, when asked whether science teachers should be paid more than other teachers - as is the practice in Britain - she said she did not know whether people were "mature" enough to take that step.
Other options such as science teachers dividing their time between schools and private industry should be considered, in conjunction with the teaching profession.
Teaching was a unionised profession and there would be major resistance to teachers being paid different salaries.
Mr Bernard Collins, president of the chamber, said: "We must develop an education system that can continue to provide students to industry that support our future needs and this is not happening at present."
Also speaking at the publication of the report was Prof Peter Mitchell, acting head of the experimental physics department at UCD, who said the biggest problem was teachers at second level not qualified to teach their subjects.
He said the way to tackle the shortage of science graduates going into teaching was to put a quota in place so that a certain number of places were reserved for science students.
He said many science students, because they did not have a first-class honours degree, were rejected for a place on a H.Dip course.