Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for letting me in. I recognise that I am not a permanent member of the committee. However, the Minister, Deputy Harris, knows I tend to follow him about.

I want to acknowledge the progress that has been made in the past two years in the way that we support students with disabilities on the PhD level. However, there are a number of anomalies I want to point out to the Minister. I would ask that he engage with the Minister for Social Protection to ensure the invalidity pension recipients would not have to go on the partial capacity benefit to take up a full-time PhD.

There is also a lack of clarity on how income from the compulsory work during the PhD is treated, such as the grading of papers and the teaching supports. In some colleges, the PhD students are paid for their work, but others are not. Students on disability or invalidity are in limbo and unable to get clarity on whether they are able to be paid or whether this will affect their disability support payments. I would also ask that the Minister work with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to look at how our secondary support is affected by taking up scholarships or PhD stipends. For example, I ask for clarity on when disabled students lose eligibility to fuel allowance or other means tested secondary supports.

We are talking about a small number of students at this level, but they need flexibility and clear guidance on the rules. There seems to be a falling between the gaps between the Minister’s Department and the Department of Social Protection. It would very good going forward if we could have that more streamlined in a frame and then people could know. The more we can get rid of the anxiety around these things and have proper guidance, the better it would be. I want to acknowledge the work done by the Minister, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, but also by Catherine Gallagher from Achill. That is one question.

I will just ask the other question, if the Minister does not mind, and he can then respond. The fund for the students with disabilities obviously provides for funding with the post leaving certificate, PLC, college and schools to assist them in offering supports and services for eligible students with disabilities so they can participate on an equal basis with their peers. It is managed by the higher education authority, HEA, for higher education and SOLAS for further education. I have been contacted by a number of PAs working in further education and they are hired on zero contract hours. They have no pay scale or pension and are forced to sign on during the summer. Some are employed in essentially a full-time basis, if you can call it that, for years, and others are hired to meet the needs of a student. However, if the student does not attend or complete the course, they are then just dropped. We have not been able to even get clarity on whether the PAs are on standardised terms or if it varies from education and training board, ETB, to ETB.

There is a connection between how we treat students with disabilities and the staff we employ to support them. I have not been able to find a legal basis for the terms of employment for PAs. I ask the Minister to look into that matter and share with this committee or me the details on the employment terms for both further and higher education in that sense.