Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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Yes. The problem with what the Minister is saying, though, while it is fine in general terms and I agree with him that there is plenty of good that Athena SWAN set out to promote and defend, is how these things can get manipulated over time. We are living in a cancel culture kind of environment, where we see people who have views that differ from someone else's being accused of making the other person feel unsafe. Now, that is not a good academic environment and yet it is increasingly the problem across the western world. Nobody wants to threaten anybody, but if the very expression of certain academic ideas is deemed by another person to be a threat, that cannot be the basis to close down their academic freedom. It is not clear to me what the situation is with Athena SWAN in this context, as it is currently. As I said, we must bear in mind it is the gateway to funding. This has changed in Britain and is not now the case there, where there are other ways of peeling the onion.