Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There are approximately 8,000 PhD researchers in the country. They do a vast amount of the teaching in our institutions of higher education. The great majority of them get stipends that mean they are in actuality earning less than the minimum wage. This is true even for those with the best stipends. That compares with the Nordic countries, where they get up to €50,000 as a starting point. Will the Minister agree, as part of the review, to meet the PhDs Collective Action Union and the Postgraduate Workers Alliance to ensure this situation is remedied urgently?

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