I don’t think it does farming much good to criticise the just-confirmed neonicotinoid ban. I have not the scientific knowledge nor indeed the inclination to wade through all the studies that resulted in the European Food Safety Agency reaching their conclusions that the chemicals did damage bees.

The findings of the agency convinced the Department of Agriculture to change its vote and last week, Minister Creed voted for a ban. COPA, the EU-wide farm organisation, criticised the ban but would it not be better for farmers to accept the science if it’s put forward as the finding of a reputable EU scientific agency and instead press for sensible policy changes?

These changes might include, in the short-term, a ban on imports from third countries where such chemicals are used and ideally, monetary compensation for the yield lost because of the ban. In the medium term, there are more exciting possible responses.

Last week, I attended a remarkable conference on “gene editing” at the Royal Irish Academy. Irish farmers need little introduction to the progress that’s possible with genetics.

The ICBF achievements with the increase in the genetic merit of our dairy herd is recognised across the world. But with the new ability to silence the gene responsible for horns in cattle and remarkably to also silence or knock out the gene responsible for powdery mildew in wheat, the range of possibilities opening up is truly enormous.

It was good to see Prof Patrick Lonergan of Agriculture in UCD and Dr Ewen Mullins of Teagasc both totally involved in this area.

While there are real ethical questions as to how the technology should be used in humans, plants and animals have been selectively bred for thousands of years. We can now do it much more precisely than before with enormous possibilities for farming.

This technology is different from GM technology, and the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice issuing a formal statement saying in his view, the technology was similar to traditional plant breeding, except exercised with more precision. The hope now has to be that universities and research institutes will be allowed get on with it.

There is little point in Irish tillage farmers having some of the highest yields in the world if the potential profit is all absorbed by the highest plant protection costs in the world. The best view is that given the go-ahead, we could see these genetically disease-resistant plants available in five to seven years’ time.

In terms of human health, we can look at the control of genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy and motor neuron disease. In animals, retrovirus in pigs, as well as from an animal welfare point of view the need to no longer have routine castration.

In plants and crops, the possibilities are real and need not be in the distant future – a European and especially national priority should be given to research and practical development in this area.