Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. We have obviously introduced some measures in the budget as an immediate and tangible relief against some of the challenges of the rising cost of living. This included a once-off payment in 2022 of €500 for PhD students who receive an Irish Research Council, IRC, or Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, award and a €500 increase to the stipend baseline in 2023 for PhD students who receive an IRC or SFI award. In certain circumstances, PhD students may also qualify for support from the State's student grant support scheme, Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI.

I agree that we need to do a lot better and that we need to do an awful lot more to support PhD students, and to support Ireland, because this is a matter of both our social and economic well-being into the future. For that reason, and having heard very clearly from PhD researchers, I have commissioned a national review of all State supports for PhD researchers. In this regard, I was pleased to recently appoint Dr. Andrea Johnson and David Cagney as external co-chairs for the review. The scope of the review will cover a range of issues, such as current PhD researcher supports, including financial supports; the adequacy, consistency and equity of current arrangements across research funders and higher education institutions, including equity and welfare considerations; the status of PhD researchers, given the debate about whether they should be students or employees, including a review of international comparators and models; graduate outcomes for PhD graduates, including the benefits to the researcher; and visa requirements and duration for non-EU students and their spouses, which comes up quite a bit. The review, informed by a robust evidence base, will be completed in early 2023. It will look at issues of adequacy, taking account of costs and other issues, such as the exemption of the PhD stipend from income tax. A list of the stakeholders that will be consulted as part of the review has not yet been agreed but it will be open to everybody, including the public, to make submissions. In light of the Deputy's question, I will ensure the groups he referenced will be engaged with as part of the review. I will convey that to the co-chairs.

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