Mr. Frank Jones:

If I may, several speakers on our side have referred to the career advancement and the stages. Just so that the Deputies and Senators are very clear on the stages of development in a research career framework, there is a document produced by the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association titled, IUA Researcher Career Development and Employment Framework. When one reads this document, it sets some objectives and the path but it also sets out the career of a researcher in seven stages. The thing I want the committee to be very cognisant of is that stage seven is termination. One is therefore building oneself up for termination. The document states it can take between ten and 16 years to reach the highest point and then the research is on termination and free to go into the public sector, the private sector or somewhere else. This is not an employment framework. It is contrary to every decent piece of legislation that has come from our membership of the European Union. On Europe Day, it is worth mentioning that.

This has been developed without input from this side of the table. When we try to make an input, we are told by those responsible that we are not a negotiating body. This is the career framework we are up against. Research and innovation Ireland, if that is the name that will be chosen for the new entity, has to take some responsibility here. It is not good enough that such a large number of workers are as badly paid as we are telling the committee they are, with such desperate terms and conditions of employment, which, thankfully, we do not see in any other sector. They workers are paid through public funds, yet do not always attract the public sector pay increases. This group of workers is treated terribly. I hope I have shocked the Deputy.