Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am sorry to cut across Ms McGee. There is an issue with SMEs not being part of the ecosystem in question. This bridges that gap. I am regularly contacted by PhD students who simply cannot exist on the stipend as it stands. They want to be part of that. Ms McGee highlighted this in her submission. We could use the words "challenge" or "disaster" when referring to housing. I will use the word "challenge" for now. Ms McGee also referred to healthcare and childcare. These people receive nothing in their stipends that they could live on. If the emphasis is going to be on bringing people through PhD programmes and linking them with SMEs, that is fantastic. It is a good idea. Members of IBEC would look at this and think it would be brilliant if they could get into that, but we are talking here about someone who is the HR person and the receptionist and who does the door and the cleaning. That person is responsible for making sure everyone else gets paid before them. In the other 15 minutes of the day, they try to deal with all of their family matters and everything else. How can we reach those people? They all know the benefits. They can see them. I have spoken to these people. They want to be part of it. There is a sense that this could not be for them. They ask how they would manage that person or do it. Ms McGee refers to supports and an avenue being needed.