Mr. Frank Jones:

I thank the Chair. While I am the general secretary of IFUT, I am before the committee in my capacity as a member of the ICTU education sector group and a member of the ICTU executive council, to share our inputs and concerns with the draft legislation as it currently stands. We will also focus on the opportunities the legislation presents.

My colleagues in the other unions and associations will make reference to some significant aspects of what is currently contained in the draft legislation and the need for greater long-term investment to ensure this sector delivers for all. ICTU supports these points and those that were included in the recent letter to The Irish Timesby a group of senior academics, along with the follow-up letter that attracted in the order of 2,000 signatories and was delivered to the Minister, Deputy Harris, last Tuesday and with which I am sure the committee is familiar. I am aware of other submissions made to this process, including that by the Irish Humanities Alliance, and others, supportive of the points being made by some here before the committee. These include: the need for a meaningful definition of "research" to be included in the legislation; a need for parity of esteem between disciplines, namely, STEM, arts and humanities and social sciences; and the need for strong, accountable and independent governance of research and innovation Ireland.

As stated, Congress supports those key points and looks forward to working with like-minded organisations and the committee to ensure the draft legislation is amended to reflect all of the progressive points being heard through this process. Congress is the largest civil society organisation on the island of Ireland. It represents and campaigns on behalf of 750,000 working people. There are currently 44 unions affiliated to congress north and south of the Border. It is for this reason ICTU is well-positioned to raise specific points about the terms and conditions of employment and engagement for those who are and will be working in the area of research across the universities now and into the future.

Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union provides that each member state with collective bargaining coverage below a threshold of 80%, which includes us, should develop or introduce a framework of enabling conditions for collective bargaining and establish an action plan to promote collective bargaining to progressively increase the collective bargaining coverage rate. The establishment of research and innovation Ireland is an opportunity to address this requirement of the EU from the very outset, for researchers working in Ireland. To this end, we suggest that in addition to the changes being suggested by other groups and as per the aforementioned letter, a further clause should be inserted into the legislation under head 8 - objects. It would provide that research and innovation Ireland take overall responsibility for ensuring the terms and conditions of employment and engagement for researchers and others whose employment is supported by funding approved by research and innovation Ireland, is arrived at following a process of collective bargaining with the appropriate trade unions or ICTU.

Under head 15 - membership of board, head 15(3) should include provision that ICTU has the nominating rights for at least one of the 11 board members. I would be delighted to take any questions members may have and to engage with any of them in the coming weeks and months to ensure no opportunities are missed for improving this draft legislation as it passes through the Stages.