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

I am not opposing the legislation per se. I certainly hope what the Minister outlined is the case. I want it to be the case, but there are things to be done that he has decided not to include in this legislation. I would prefer that he did include them. I hope he will keep his commitment to researchers, and the people who engage in research, to resolve the issues that are very real issues for them. It is not right that so many researchers are living in poverty, and have such precarity in their lives that they often consider dropping out, and do drop out, because they just cannot sustain this. They are not students. They are people who are into, or even past, their early adulthood, who have lives, families, partners, mortgages, rents and so on. They cannot be treated as students. We should stop treating them as students. We should treat them properly, and give them decent incomes and sustainable career paths. I hope the Government will do that as a matter of urgency. It is the right thing for them to acknowledge them, but it is also the right thing for the country, for our society, and for the advancement of science, research, the arts and humanities. At every level, it is the right thing to do. We are still significantly behind the curve in doing it and we need to do it quickly. I would have preferred if it had been done here, but we will be on the Minister's case to make sure it is done.

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