Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Malcolm Byrne for raising this important issue. The question relates to the fact that researcher grades such as postdoctoral researchers, for example, have access to public service pensions in some higher education institutions but this access is not universal across the sector. My Department is currently working to support that standardisation of researchers’ pensions access in the higher education sector and has been engaging with the management bodies in the higher education institutes affected on the issue for some time.

Researchers in the institutes of technology and technological university sector do not have access to public service pension schemes. Researcher grades in traditional universities and other public sector bodies do have access to these schemes, as the Senator outlined.

My Department has been engaging positively with the management bodies in the higher education sector, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Education to establish the requirements of a business case to support access to the single public service pension scheme for this group. Significant data have been sought by my Department in order to make a comprehensive and supportive case to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which will made a final determination in this case. Most recently, further engagement with the sector took place with a view to establishing forecast data for future researcher numbers in the institutes of technology and the technological universities. These data will be incorporated into the overall business case, which is advancing well at this stage, and I expect it to be finalised shortly.The enablement of greater research capacity in the technological sector is a key factor in the technological university agenda, as Senators will know, along with other critical issues my Department is working on, such as the OECD review of academic contracts.

The Technological University Act was enacted in 2018. Since then, we have seen huge growth in the sector. We are soon to have five technological universities with the establishment of Atlantic Technological University on 1 April. That will followed soon after by the establishment of South East Technological University on 1 May 2022, about which Senator Malcolm Byrne knows very much.

Previously, the focus of the former institutes of technology was on teaching and regional engagement. The need for research in the sector is now more prominent. The Technological Universities Research Network, TURN, report was published in 2019. The report made 12 recommendations that will provide the technological universities with a solid foundation for their development. These recommendations fall within three thematic areas that the report has identified as being key building blocks for successful technological universities. One of these thematic areas relates to building research capacity. The report identified that research capacity would be enhanced through increased funding in human capital development, such as staff development and recruitment among other areas, for human capital growth. I am satisfied that this will be key in achieving strategic objectives for the sector under the Technological Universities Act 2018. The business case that my Department is working on will support this development.