Dr. Ruth Freeman:

As I flagged in my submission, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is carrying out an ongoing review of the structures to support PhD students. In reality, the stipend to students has remained the same for many years and it has been highlighted that it has not kept up with the cost of living for students. As a result, and to quote some of the researchers that we fund, they are either unable to attract students to take up PhD positions or the pool of students they can attract is restricted to those who can perhaps stay in their parents' homes within commuting distance of the laboratory where they are going to do their work. The rising accommodation costs and the cost of living mean that those who do not have those supports are unable to take up these opportunities. The implications for us, as a society, are that we are excluding people from certain socioeconomic backgrounds from taking up these opportunities in STEM and we are not opening up the widest talent pool we can to build a world-class research system here in Ireland. We, therefore, welcome the review.

The review will look at a number of different lenses. In other European countries, PhD students are regarded as staff members whereas here they are treated as students. I think the review may look at that aspect but certainly the level of the stipend is the urgent issue today. We would like to see it resolved as soon as possible so that we can continue to attract talent.