Richard Boyd Barrett urges €30,000 minimum for PhD researchers

Minister, there are in the region of 10,000 PhD researchers in this country. It's, I think, accurate to say that much of the higher education system is run on the basis of their exploitation, because the vast majority of them are earning less than a minimum wage for teaching in our universities and institutes of higher education. So will you commit to treating them as workers and to paying them at least a minimum wage of €30,000 a year? Thank you, Deputy Minister. Thank you very much, Deputy. So under Budget 25, additional funding was announced for Research Ireland in order to increase its PhD stipend level to €25,000, representing an increase of 31% in just two years. And this announcement builds upon my department's consistent focus and progression on this issue. That came into effect from the 1st of January of this year. So given the significant growth in such a short space of time, I have no immediate plans to increase the figure further. So 25,000 was the ask very recently. It was a significant increase on what was there. And we've done that now. As of this year, we have reached that 25,000 figure for PhD stipends. My department has also implemented the recommendations of the independent review of state supports for PhD researchers for an optimum stipend level of €25,000. And that review exercise was actually the first time that PhD provision in Ireland was so comprehensively reviewed. For those PhD students in receipt of stipends from national competitive funding agencies, outside the remit of my department, the level of stipend awarded is at the discretion of each funder and its parent department. So put simply, those agencies under my remit and under my department and receiving funding from Research Island and so forth are providing the 25,000 stipend. There may be other funders outside the remit of my department which have their own arrangements, but certainly they're all encouraged to put the least to reach that threshold also. And then there are also institutional scholarship supports sometimes provided by the higher education institution primarily. And, of course, there are some private sector sponsorships, et cetera, as well. So in terms of the higher education institutions, the universities, how they use and distribute their core funding is at their own discretion. They are autonomous institutions. And, of course, the private sector will have their own arrangements that they enter into with individuals freely. So there is a degree of discretion on those, but certainly for my part, those agencies that I fund and that I control are required to meet the 25,000 stipend, and I understand that they are doing so. Deputy Boyd Barrett. Minister, first of all, only 30% of people guessed the Research Ireland 25,000 euro. And that happened because of a sustained campaign by post-grad workers and PhD researchers. But huge numbers don't get it. It should be a minimum requirement. And 25,000 is also, frankly, poverty wages. It's poverty wages. And they're a stipend, of course, so you don't get any of the normal benefits associated with working, even though they are workers. And, in fact, one of their biggest demands, and I met with AMLE and the Post-Grad Workers Association during the week, is to be treated as workers, as is the case in other countries. And I really would put it to you, you know, this government often goes on about research and development, right? Compared to Germany, the Netherlands, a best practice in the rest of Europe, our researchers, the people who actually do the front-line research, and who teach people in our higher-level education institutions and universities, are treated terribly compared to their international counterparts. Are you not going to change that? Well, one of the first things that are changed, Deputy, is the equipment and infrastructure available to them. And just last month, I launched the new Inspire program, which is a 750 million euro capital envelope to support research infrastructure and equipment across the higher education institutions. That was a very clear ask of me by the sector, by the research community, and something that was being long asked, and coming into the role, something I was determined to address as soon as possible, and I was able to secure funding through the National Development Plan to do that. And that is now live. That call is starting. That will be opening in the new year. And that has been welcomed, I think, almost universally across the research sector. In terms of the PhD stipends, and I note the statistics you mentioned, I think they're fair. I think there's 3,000 of the 10,000 students supported by Research Ireland, 1,000 from other public funders, 2,000 from institutional scholarships or from universities directly, and then 4,000 funded through the private sector or the employer. So of those, there's 4,000 private sector, 3,000 Research Ireland, and the 1,000 of other public funders, I suppose it's at their discretion how they choose to use their funds. Yeah, but look, the very best of 25,000, it's poverty, right? And in a cost of living crisis, the cost of accommodation, it's in poverty, and they don't have any of the benefits because it's a stipend, even though it's work in reality. It's a stipend, so they don't get maternity leave, sick pay, any of the normal benefits as workers, even though their counterparts in the Netherlands, Germany, much higher wages, much higher wages, and they're treated as workers, they have a sliding scale of wages, that's good treatment of researchers, whereas ours are living in poverty in the most precarious of situations. And I contrast it, Minister, to the fact hundreds of millions extra were given out in the Research and Development tax credit during the budget, right? Big winners, big corporations. Now, the Research and Development tax credit is up to 1.4 billion, mostly going to a small number of multinationals. A small amount of that money could actually, could lift our PhD researchers out of poverty. Thank you, Deputy. So, are you going to address the fact that these PhD researchers who keep our system going are living in poverty? Yeah, so this is on the 35% tax credit Research and Development tax credit. I fully support that and that fact that I gave it Minister Dunahoo at the time to seek that, because I think that is really impactful for the research and innovation and advanced knowledge industries. And that ultimately is what creates the resources, creates the jobs, creates the enterprise, indeed creates the tax intake that allows us to do the public, deliver the public good in other ways. And many of our PhD students may well aspire and may well indeed actually, in actuality, continue to work for those same institutions when they complete their education. I wouldn't make any assumptions as to the recipients of that funding, Deputy, because I worked in the sector previously, before I was in political life, and there were a number of smaller institutions, including indigenous ones, also availed those kind of supports. Just briefly on the stipend itself, my understanding is that the ask was 25,000, you mentioned the campaign, and a 31% increase was achieved in two years. Now that's quite a significant increase by any means, and I think that's something that was very significant to be able to do. The other point I'd make, by not being classed as workers, they don't pay any tax, they don't pay any PSI, they don't pay any USC, it's entirely tax-free. So I think that it would be seen by most as being, there is a corollary to bear in mind on that. Thank you. Thank you.