Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week I met with a delegation from the Irish Federation of University Teachers. They gave a powerful presentation. I think it was organised by our colleagues in the Labour Party. I was shocked by what they told us. I always assumed that a career in academia would be a pretty good way to make a living. Many of us would have thought that if our kids could end up there, that would be a good space to work. They did an extensive survey which revealed that 36% - more than one in three - of those employed in the sector consider themselves precariously employed. A significant proportion, 32%, of academic roles, particularly in teaching and research, are occupied by individuals who consider themselves precariously employed. Only 15% of researchers - one in ten, in effect - are on permanent contracts and 8% of respondents indicated they did not have a written contract of employment. Imagine that they do not have a written contract of employment. The sector is in ribbons in terms of workers' rights. Perhaps the most shocking thing they told us was that collective bargaining does not happen.

For the university sector to be let go to this degree is an absolute disaster. Of course as usual people are voting with their feet. They are leaving. Some of our best academics are now going abroad. They are going to Europe, the US and so forth because they actually cannot get a permanent job here. The damage is not just to the university sector, and not just to the teaching skills. It is damage to the future education of all our children. This needs an urgent debate. I call for that debate as early as we can in the new year.

We need to address this issue and listen to the trade union involved, which does excellent representation for these people. How can it be acceptable, when we have fully funded State education, that these organisations are not talking to the union because there is no engagement in collective bargaining with the union? They are behaving in a cavalier manner by not giving people decent contracts of employment. In this day and age that is entirely unacceptable.