Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is no problem. I welcome the Minister here. I am delighted that there is a Minister with responsibility for further and higher education, innovation, research and science because those are my favourite topics in the world. I am thrilled that there is a Minister focused on the area.

I could take the Minister on a whistle-stop tour of all the different things I could talk about. I will try to get through as many as I can. Last week I met representatives of the Alliance for Affordable Insurance for International Students who are deeply concerned about the cost of insurance for international students. I do not know if this has been brought to the attention of the Minister. The ruling of the Health Insurance Authority, HIA, was perfected by the courts 11 days ago which means that the cover for these international students must come into effect on 2 October. They will be required to take out community insurance and this means that the cost will rise from €150 to €730 next week. Could the Minister address that? It will have a serious impact. We must look after our international reputation and I am concerned about the effect of this, particularly seeing as international students will get less cover than previously.

I will talk briefly about precarious work. We know that the higher and further education sector is riddled with precarious work. I have recently been contacted by staff who are on two-year contracts and have been told that their contracts are not going to be renewed. Those staff believe that teaching is now going to be done by unpaid research, PhD, postgraduate or postdoctoral students. That is worrying. We have always known that unpaid teaching has been happening underneath the surface in the sector. We all saw recently an email that went out from an institution stating that unpaid work was going to be a requirement. That was the first time in my time doddling around this sector that I had seen that written down like that. I am concerned about unpaid work and think everyone should get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. That should apply particularly to research students who are trying to finish their studies and share their expertise. They need respect. The Minister might consider and address that point because we must get to grips with it.

While we are on the topic of paid work, it would be remiss of me not to talk about student nurses. One student nurse who contacted me is working on a Covid-19 ward and is not being paid. She cannot eat a clap. The candles in people's windows are not going to pay her heating bill. It is unacceptable that we have student nurses who are not being paid.

We already know that our fees are among the highest in Europe. The Minister has said those fees are simply too high. The Cassells report was launched when I was president of the Union of Students in Ireland. There has obviously been a plot twist in my life, given that I have somehow ended up becoming a Senator a couple of years later. We are still talking about the future funding of higher education and I implore the Minister to fund the sector. The road ran out four years ago when the report was launched and the sector is bursting at the seams.

The programme for Government commits to reassessing the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant system. I would be interested to here what is the Minister's timeline for that. We desperately need to look at things like adjacency rates, postgraduate supports and targeted grants. I am concerned about the impact that Covid-19 is going to have on students who traditionally struggled to access higher and further education, or whatever post-second level learning opportunities they wanted to. I am worried that they will fall through the cracks. I am interested to hear what we are going to do to support them.

The Minister mentioned accommodation and I once sat on that interdepartmental student accommodation working group. My phone is ringing off the hook with students who were told that there was going to be face-to-face learning and have now been told that is not going to happen.They have paid for accommodation. I know that a number of institutions are being flexible but not all of them are, and that is really worrying.

As for postgraduate fees and supports, we have some of the highest postgraduate fees in Europe. They are astronomical. I nearly fainted yesterday when I looked at how much they are now compared with when I was doing my postgrad. We need to think about how we support students. There are some postgraduate grants but they are limited, so how will we support these students?

The stipends of research students whose research ran out during lockdown have run out. Some of them are being allowed back into their institutions to finish their research but they have no money to do so and are concerned they will not be able to finish out their PhDs.

Staff are trying to prepare for three types of classes: online, in person, and in person but also online. That is an enormous burden. I spoke to a lecturer the other day who said they are trying to get ready but they do not know what they are trying to prepare for. That is really difficult.

Finally, I wish to give a shout out to the USI Education for All campaign, which was launched this week. I am sure USI would not mind if I invited everyone in this Chamber to engage with that campaign and listen to what USI is talking about. Education should be for everyone. It is not a privilege. It should be open to everyone who wants it, in whatever format it is wanted: post-second level, apprenticeships, further and higher education, and lifelong learning. I look forward to working with the Minister on making that a reality for everyone.