Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

For example, persons have been told in Galway recently, I think, that they will be described as tutors and even when they are delivering lectures that they will be paid at a tutor rate. It is really important that we knock that on the head and that the Government leads in this. The Universities Act is very clear about the role of the HEA and the Government in terms of guiding and setting policy in this area. I do not think this is solely happening individually in institutions. There is a clear responsibility for the State to provide leadership. The employment control framework is one of the factors that has contributed to this race to the bottom in terms of secure contracts. I welcome the 1,500 additional posts but it is a very small portion of that 10,000 or 11,000 we are talking about who are in insecure contracts. That needs to be scaled up rapidly in terms of ensuring quality pieces.

In the remaining time, I want to highlight one or two very small issues. We should not solely have research that is led by private sector interest. Investment in public research, public public partnerships, is a crucial matter. It is very important that secure contracts do not become a preserve of those working in the industry area because that is how we lose out on frontier research and really new thinking. On a matter that was brought to my attention by Senator McDowell, in that 1960 debate, this is how long we have looked at the issue and this is how much it was recognised that the role of universities, the freedom of universities and the experience of those working in universities are core to our State. It was recognised that it was crucial that universities would be able to act free from State intervention even though they are supported by the State on some key issues. That debate also recognised the importance of freedom for academic staff from the least hint of a threat of penalisation. We do not have freedom of academic staff if they do not know whether they are going to be able to continue to pay their rent through the summer or whether they are going to have a contract next year. We all lose out when academic freedom and thinking are curtailed in that way. We lose out on the diversity of views within our universities. We lose out from a gender equality perspective. I have not had time to go into some excellent research provided by Dr. Theresa O'Keeffe and Dr. Aline Courtois around casualisation and the gender dimension. We lose out on the quality of teaching and we lose out as a society.

I thank the Minister of State for his engagement with the motion and look forward to further engagement. I urge that we see concrete steps to address these issues in parallel with the legislation on research and innovation that will be coming through this House. I urge that we do not look to take smaller, incremental action on this. This deterioration in conditions happened over a set period and was driven by set factors. The State has the capacity to reverse it and create again a healthy, positive and secure environment for all who work within our universities.