Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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90. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to address the inequity experienced by PhD researchers who are excluded from the €500 one-off payment; if the PhD researchers excluded are on average on lower stipends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51727/22]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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What steps is the Minister taking to address the inequity experienced by PhD researchers, specifically those who are excluded from the €500 once-off payment, and if the PhD researchers excluded are on the average or the lower stipends? Has the Minister's approach excluded PhD researchers most in need? I say that given all PhD researchers are in a very difficult situation, but specifically these ones.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is important to note that my Department allocates recurrent funding to the HEA for direct disbursement to HEA-designated higher education institutions. However, as autonomous bodies, the internal disbursement of this funding is a matter for the individual institution. As is clear from the actions already taken in the cost-of-living measures outlined in the budget, my Department is monitoring the issue of stipends and the views expressed by students and other stakeholders. With that in mind, as an immediate and tangible relief against the challenges of the rising cost of living, I am introducing 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 either of those awards. PhD student recipients may also, in certain circumstances, qualify for support from SUSI.

I confirm that my Department will soon begin a review of PhD student support, and we plan to have a report commissioned and finished by early 2023. I intend to announce further details in the coming days, once finalised, and I would welcome the Deputy’s views in this regard. In my first budget as Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I increased the IRC stipend from €16,000 per annum to €18,500, matching that of SFI. In the context of the Government's cost of living package, I was happy to secure a further €500 increase for the SFI and IRC PhD stipends. However, a more fundamental look at stipends and other associated issues that I hear about from students is merited at this stage.

My Department does not collate information on the level of stipends awarded by funding agencies. However, I can confirm that the stipends provided by the SFI and the IRC are set at €18,500. I understand there is variation in stipends awarded by other bodies, whether sourced from public funds, own resources or private funds. The issue of a recommended minimum stipend is one that could usefully be considered by the review I am initiating currently. There could be merit in that. At the moment, stipends are funded either through the two agencies, the IRC and the SFI, but also by individual institutions. Some can come from private funding, some from public funding and some from a mix of both. There is not this issue of a recommended minimum stipend in Ireland and I think that is something we could usefully advance in the context of the review.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The problem is in terms of announcing different things and saying there are different amounts of money available in the budget. Rents have increased 82% since the Government came into office, which compares with an average of 17% across the rest of the EU. That is an 82% increase in rents and wages have gone nowhere near keeping up with that, never mind the SUSI grants or PhD stipends. In that context, it is easy to see how students would be so discontented. The budget stated that 4,000 PhD researchers would benefit from the €500 increase. However, in an answer the Minister gave me on 23 June, he said there were fewer than 3,000 PhDs funded through the SFI and the IRC. That would mean that less than half of all the PhD researchers would benefit from the payment. We also need a wider discussion, as the Minister said, around how we expect PhD researchers to live on the stipends of €19,000, which is far less than the minimum wage. I welcome the review but I want to know its scope and when it will be completed. It is essential that there be a minimum floor to the stipends for full-time PhDs.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I do not want to pre-empt the review but my instinctive view is in line with the Deputy’s in terms of this idea of a recommended minimum stipend. That is something that would be quite helpful because the more one looks into this issue, the more one realises there are so many different and diverse ways in which stipends are funded. There are the ones directly funded through my own Department’s agencies, there are the ones funded through public funds from higher education institutions directly, through the block grant, if we like, there are ones funded from the own resources of a university and there are some from private sources as well. The issue of a recommended minimum stipend is one that could usefully be considered by the review I am initiating.

I am very happy to share the details of the terms of reference with the Deputy and I should be in a position to do that this week. I also intend to appoint someone external to carry that out and their first job will be to engage with PhD students and their representative bodies. I can tell the Deputy from my work so far that I think the terms of reference will be pretty broad. I am trying to get a balance between covering the range of issues and trying to have it ready for early 2023 so we can act on this in 2023.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that. We should look at the apprenticeship model because apprentices have worker status and employment contracts, and they get paid more each year as the balance between the learning and the work shifts. I think that is important for us to look at. If there is a model already there that works in terms of respecting PhD researchers, we need to examine that. We need to deal with this situation once and for all. We desperately need these PhD researchers. I am very concerned that they are going to be put off doing the really valuable work they do. I know and the Minister knows from going to colleges about all of the different work that they do. There is a very unsavoury way in which these workers are unappreciated. Their work is not valued, despite the value they add. That is even aside from the cost of living. What are we telling and showing students in these colleges if we can treat researchers like this?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This is an important issue for the well-being of our students, the next generation of leaders and some of our best and brightest. It is also an important issue from the point of view of the competitiveness of our country, a knowledge-based economy. I want to look at the stipend but, in any review, I want to look at more than the stipend, as the Deputy is suggesting. I think there are legitimate issues around how a PhD researcher or PhD student is classified within the university. I am not suggesting that there is a one-size-fits-all model, or saying the Deputy is suggesting that. Some countries that are viewed as doing very well in this area classify the PhD students as employees while others who also do very well and support PhD students well do not classify them as such. It is an issue that needs to be teased through. I hear of other issues that are probably in the remit of the Department of Justice around visas and the rights of a spouse of a PhD student to work. There are many issues. What we will try to do in the coming days is capture them in a review, appoint an external person to carry this out, engage and then, crucially, report early in 2023.

I am happy to work closely with the Deputy on that issue.