Secondary school students from Athenry and Spiddal are to battle it out in this year's final of the REMEDI schools debate competition at NUI Galway on Wednesday, 9 May 2007.

The motion for this year's final is: The current situation whereby most Irish hospitals do not facilitate cord blood collection is unacceptable. Arguing in favour of the motion will be Jack Rawlings and Catherine O'Keefe, Transition Year students at Presentation Secondary School, Athenry.

Arguing against the motion will be fifth year students Ciara Ní Ghabhain and John Gerard O'Gnímh, representing Coláiste Chroí Mhuire, An Spidéal. Prizes include a Galway Crystal trophy for the winning school, while the successful students will be presented with iPods. The runners up will also receive a Galway Crystal trophy for their school and personal prizes of iPOD shuffles.

Professor Frank Barry, Scientific Director of REMEDI, and one of the world's leading experts in stem cell research, will chair the judging panel.

A total of eight schools across the city and county participated in this year's competition, which is part of the Galway Region Outreach (GRO) programme. GRO is an innovative outreach programme aimed at secondary schools in the region facilitated jointly by REMEDI and the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Sciences (NCBES) at NUI Galway. It promotes science, engineering and technology to students and encourages them to consider a career in these fields.

The aim of the competition is to stimulate discussion among young people on the ethical and societal issues raised by developments in biomedical sciences.