Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is never too late to do the right thing. I very much welcome the review and the legislation that the Minister is proposing around this and I hope it will fix what has been broken for a long time, in particular on an individual level in terms of pushing PhD researchers into poverty. I have met so many PhD researchers over the last couple of years. They are the most modest, frugal people in probably the whole of the population. Given the valuable work they do on climate change, public health and so many other issues that we need addressed across the country, they are vital to our present and to our future. Every day, we hear of new innovations and new revelations that are being made, and they are being made on the basis of the very hard work that is done by these PhD researchers. I take on board what the Minister is saying on the terms of reference and how this is going to be scoped. I ask him to sit down, as others have, with the unions to make sure we capture everything and that we get it right this time. I ask when that review will be finished and when the legislation will come in. The Minister knows that legislation often comes into this House and that it then takes ages to complete. The Opposition will work with the Minister to make sure it is expedited.

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