Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is a carryover from the last Committee of Public Accounts. It concerned the broader university sector, where many people are employed on a very precarious basis, with many working a small number of hours. We are being told that the university also engages people on an occasional hourly basis. Obviously, this deals with public holidays and holidays in general, but the point we were trying to get to was what is the ratio of people who are working on an occasional basis, whether that is a very dominant issue and whether it is replacing less precarious work, either in Maynooth or other universities. This is very precarious work. Universities will have a need for guest lectures and all of the rest, but there are also people who routinely provide teaching hours, often on a precarious basis.

We were looking at the ratio of that. It might be worth digging out the original documentation from last year because there was quite a substantial reply from Maynooth in regard to the number. That number jumped out at me because there are actually quite a large number of people employed on a very precarious basis.