Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, back to the Chamber. I am standing in to speak for my colleague Senator Warfield.

The principle behind amendment No. 10 is the most important point that we would like to see reflected in the Bill. Nowhere in the Bill makes any reference to the public nature of our higher education system. The value of having a public education system cannot be overstated. The public nature should also not be taken for granted. We have seen the wholesale commercialisation of higher education over the past ten years, and in some cases piecemeal privatisation. Most people would be shocked to know that more than one third of the primary school teachers we now train come from a single, for-profit, private college, that the same college is moving into nursing this year, or that we provide millions of euro in funding to private colleges through competitive funding. This amendment represents a chance to draw a line in the sand. The very limited reference to the public sector In the general scheme of the Bill, was taken out.

In his briefing note on the Bill, the Minister highlighted the Bill's role in providing a pathway for private colleges to become designated institutes of higher education, which we discussed at a previous meeting. This is also included in the Long Title as one of the key aims of the Bill. I understand that nothing in this Bill specifically states that designated institutes of higher education would be entitled to public funding, and having met with the Minister's Department to discuss this they assured me that this was not the intention. The Bill, however, is full of references to the HEA's role in supporting designated institutes of higher education to deliver on X, Y, and Z. This creates a huge amount of grey area. Once private colleges become designated institutes of higher education they will want State funding. They already get some €20 million per year in public funding. Their case will only be made stronger by this Bill as it currently stands. This is why we really want to see that public nature of our higher education system referenced and protected by this Bill, in order to remove that ambiguity and replace a strong emphasis on the importance of maintaining a public higher education system.

I will also speak to amendment No. 20, which is in this grouping. The reason behind amendment No. 20 is that precarious employment has been allowed to spread throughout our higher education system. Unfortunately, I am aware it is a factor in local universities and in Limerick. There needs to be a specific reference that the HEA 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 at 23.4:1. This is far out of line with the OECD average of 15:1. This can only be addressed by a new sustainable funding model. In an effort to address the need to have student-facing staff, colleges have engaged occasional or hourly-paid lecturers. These employees are not technically lecturers, as lecturing staff are defined those contracted to undertake a range of academic duties encompassing teaching, research contribution, and scholarly activity. Across higher education, different job titles or terms are used to describe those engaged in this manner, including: part-time teaching assistants; part-time assistant lecturers; and occasional lecturers and so on. Those engaged in this manner are usually on short fixed-term contracts, which only pay for their teaching. In effect, we are talking about the extension of the gig economy to third level education. It is not something that Sinn Féin would ever tolerate. There is no opportunity for these people to engage in research work. Being research active is core to the role of a lecturer in the higher education sector. Trade unions have recently informed the committee that some institutes of higher education have failed to afford the terms of the public sector agreement to those engaged in this manner. The precarious nature of their engagement is further compounded by the fact that there is no sectoral engagement on industrial relations matters across the university sector. None of this will be new to the Minister and I hope that he will accept the amendment or at least the principle that the HEA should have a role in this area.

I shall now speak to amendment No. 24, which is also included in this grouping. Amendment No. 24 seeks to restore the existing area of section 4 of the 1971 Act, which explicitly charged the HEA with constantly bearing in mind the attainment of the national aims regarding Irish. It rewords this as an objective with specific reference to promoting Irish-medium higher education.The Bill as it currently stands removes this national aim from legislation. The Minister's amendments have not resolved this backwards step. I ask him to take these amendments on board.