Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy got me back for my comments on the last question. On the issue of precarious employment, I addressed the Irish Federation of University Teachers annual conference virtually last week and I specifically highlighted how we intend to address precarious employment as part of our discussion on sustainable funding. As we invest more in higher education, and it is an investment, it is only right and proper that the State expects more in terms of decent employment contracts being issued. That is a fair point.

With regard to the actions I will take in this regard, I will feed in the suggestions the Deputy has made to that process. We will have the additional information that is being collected from the higher education institutions, so we will have a full picture of what is happening. I do not mean this in a dismissive way, but we have heard individual examples and anecdotes, and they are important, but it is important that we map out and have a good picture of everything that is happening. A sub-group of the national advisory forum will consider, analyse, internationally benchmark and will report back to me. I will be happy to share the findings with the Deputy and actively engage with her on them.

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