Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to implementing Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy. A dedicated talent pillar highlights the crucial importance of people and talent to the Irish research and innovation ecosystem. It commits to ensuring that researchers are supported with the right skills development and career opportunities so that they can make their maximum contribution to research and innovation efforts.

HR policy in respect of researchers was formalised through the researcher career development and employment framework, which addressed terms and conditions and the need for a defined career path for researchers that applied across the research ecosystem. The framework has delivered significant benefits for researchers, including a clear and uniform salary structure and salary policy, incremental progression and general round increases, open and transparent recruitment, clarity around career progression and professional and career development, and clear exit provisions.

The higher education institutions are committed to providing stable and fulfilling employment and career opportunities. The significant majority of universities’ employment – approximately 83% - is through full-time and permanent contracts of employment. Our Department published a first report of the independent national review of State supports for PhD researchers last summer which focused on the issue of stipend levels and recommended an increase toward an optimum level of €25,000, subject to funding availability, which we are working on. Funding was secured under budget 2024 to increase the stipends awarded by the two competitive research funders under our remit, the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland, from €19,000 to €22,000 per annum, which is a 15.8% increase, building on the additional funding secured under budget 2023. My officials and I continue to engage with the budgetary process to continue progress on this issue.

The co-chairs' final report will be published shortly. It includes their consideration of people's PhD status. As with all elements of their work, they are taking into account the perspective of 35 stakeholder organisations, with which they met as well as a variety of international practices in operation across Europe. The report will provide the basis for ongoing policy development.

We recognise that there is further work to do here, and that we need to work with researchers on these issues and ensure that we retain our research talent into the future. However, the agency has no remit with regard to researchers' careers and the Bill is not the appropriate for this. Therefore, we are not accepting the amendment, as I previously indicated.