Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support amendments Nos. 6 and 7, which relate to students' unions, as well as amendment No. 206, relating to trade union representation. We will never get to the amendments Sinn Féin has tabled but we have a similar amendment, No. 117, on trade union membership on the board of the HEA. Amendments Nos. 206 and 117 relate to academic and non-academic staff, respectively. The absence of specific reference to trade unions throughout this Bill has been addressed by a number of amendments. That is welcome. It is important that they are represented on the board of the HEA. I will say that now because I probably will not get the chance to say it again. As well as the governing bodies of individual institutions, the inclusion of trade unions on the HEA's governing authority is welcome but we could go further there.

On amendments Nos. 217 and 275, Senator Higgins spoke about the precarious employment in these institutions. Precarious employment has been allowed to spread throughout higher education. There needs to be specific reference to this in the HEA's work. Governance of the sector must relate to the working conditions of all workers in the sector. According to the OECD, Ireland's student-staff ratio is 23.4:1. That is well out of line with the EU average of 15:1.