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

TUD is publicly funded. Some 80% of the students at BIMM are on courses provided by TUD. It gives €3 million in direct funding to BIMM and the SUSI grants and other moneys the students receive go to BIMM. It is public money. The Minister does have responsibility. He cannot wash his hands of this. Given his responsibility for higher education, the Minister has an interest in ensuring that every single teacher and lecturer working in higher education is treated properly and not subjected to a race to the bottom and to breaches of their employment rights. The idea that people would be forced to reapply for their own jobs and become so-called freelance having been employees for years is simply bogus self-employment. That is orchestrated, pre-meditated bogus self-employment. It should not be allowed in degree courses that are being run by TUD. The Minister cannot wash his hands of this. He has a responsibility, as does TUD, to ensure - by the way, it is in the contract with BIMM - that employment rights are respected. BIMM will not even meet IFUT and it has refused to go to the WRC. The Minister needs to crack the whip and intervene in this on behalf of the workers.

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