Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Given the two issues that have emerged, I am interested, in particular, in the number of times the sub-committees have met. It seems to me that the issue of child poverty has reached alarming levels. The number of children in consistent poverty has almost doubled in two years under the Government's watch, from about 6% to 12%. It is a shocking statistic which has been commented on by the United Nations and various NGOs with responsibility for children.

It has been exacerbated by cuts of one third to the back to school allowance, from €150 to €100 for primary school children and €250 to €200 for secondary school children. Up to 138,000 children live in poverty but I do not detect any strategic response to this issue in any shape or form. The latest manoeuvre, or decision, is to take 30,000 people out of the one-parent family payment, which we discussed earlier. When it is all added up, it is blow after blow. Take housing, for example, up to 1,000 children are living in hotel rooms in Dublin alone. I was canvassing last week within a mile of this House and noted some of the conditions in which children had to play were quite appalling and absolutely unacceptable. There seems to be no response whatsoever to this real serious crisis in society.

The Economic Management Council has been extremely weak and is not meeting often enough to deal with the social dimension of the Government’s economic and financial policies, policies which the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has stated successively and consistently target low-income families and lone-parent families and, in particular, exacerbate the number of children now in consistent property. Will the Economic Management Council, as well as the other relevant Cabinet committees, such as the child care and health committees, meet more often in June and July to develop meaningful and urgent emergency responses to the various factors that give rise to, and increase, such consistent child poverty? These responses should cover the very basics of access to child care and basic incomes. They should allow children to get back to school without undue cost and for parents to get a roof over their heads without the necessity of sofa-surfing, which many of them have to do, as well as asking relatives to look after their children while they try to get rental accommodation which they cannot afford because the rent cap has been introduced and limits them. The rent allowance is not sustainable. When one adds up all the policies, it is a very sorry story in terms of the Government’s lack of coherence in its response to dealing with children in consistent poverty.

I also want the Economic Management Council to meet more often in June and July to deal with the crisis in research policy. Back in March, an extraordinary letter was published in The Irish Times, signed by many eminent and highly qualified researchers such as Tom Cotter and Luke Drury, which stated:

The policy of sustained investment in scientific excellence that helped build a vibrant scientific community in Ireland over the past 15 years has given way to a short-sighted drive for commercialisable research in a very limited set of prescribed areas.

It is a damning indictment of the Government’s policy on research with its undermining of basic research and its lack of comprehension on the need for a proper balance between basic research and applied research, which will ultimately lead to a proper research environment. As a result of this, our universities are going down the world rankings because of the crisis in the research community. Recently, the general secretary of IFUT, the Irish Federation of University Teachers, Mike Jennings, spoke about the transient, roll-over and short-term nature of research and the crisis in the provision of a proper and secure employment framework for researchers in Irish universities.

I am not sure if the Taoiseach is familiar with the Tyndall National Institute. The Economic Management Council, however, would be aware that this institute is being marketed and described as the premier research facility in the country. There has been an ongoing industrial relations problem there, however, simply because these world-class researchers are not getting the same entitlements as those who work in University College Cork up the road. It is quite shocking. As a former enterprise Minister, I was involved in supporting this institute. IDA Ireland brings many multinational companies there to showcase the quality of Irish research. On her visit to Cork, the Queen’s first port of call was the Tyndall National Institute. The problem is that it has been fighting for years to achieve recognition for its status.

National University of Ireland Galway recently astonished the Labour Court by stating its policy was that not one single researcher in its employment was entitled to the same job security afforded to all public servants in return for accepting significant cuts in salary. Maynooth University tried to convince the authorities that the researchers it employed were not employees but guests. The Labour Court did not take that on board. University College Cork has begun using the term hosting to describe its relationship with people who enhance the international profile of the college by engaging in appropriate research.

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