Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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We still have a situation where Ireland has very high fees. There are many countries in the European Union that provide third level education without any fees. We need to be examining how to go further in that direction so third level education is affordable for everybody.

The Minister of State will be aware that only about half of PhD researchers are funded through the Irish Research Council, IRC, and the Science Foundation Ireland, SFI organisations. These researchers earn far below the minimum wage through the stipend. The poverty wage is damaging our research system. Why was the decision made to only provide the €500 once off payment? It is only €500. Why was the decision made to only provide it to the IRC and SFI-funded PhD researchers?