Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in this morning. I also wish to express my disappointment that neither the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, nor the Minister, Deputy Harris, were available to come in. The Irish Federation of University Teachers, IFUT, carried out an extensive survey of more than 550 academics, including lecturers and researchers, in third level institutions throughout the country. It found that almost one third were employed on fixed-term or hourly-paid casual contracts.The precarious nature of employment across the sector is preventing many academic staff from being able to make long-term life decisions such as securing a mortgage or starting a family. They are also struggling to pay bills and rent. The issue is affecting the morale and well-being of the staff in a very real way. One would imagine that, having studied for years to be qualified at that level of academia, a job in the academic world would be a good career choice. One would think it would be fairly stable and well-paid work. Academic staff are the cornerstone of higher education. That goes without saying. The precarious nature of the work now is having serious consequences for the standards of education in our universities because students suffer too. Precarious employment means that students are increasingly taught by lecturers who are not paid outside of class time and therefore cannot provide the pastoral care and feedback that students need to improve their work and their confidence. It makes no sense that these workers would be undervalued or treated unfairly. The education of our future generations is at risk if this bad practice is not stamped out, yet that is not happening. The fact is that thousands of employees in our universities are on involuntary and inappropriate fixed-term, part-time, casual, if-and-when and zero-hour contracts.

Other issues the study highlighted are that 61% of casual, hourly paid employees do not get paid for time between terms and have to sign on every summer and that a further 31% work only on an if-and-when basis. Academics are working on average 11 hours per week over their normal hours with no additional compensation. One third of respondents felt their employer does not treat them with dignity and respect, and all those who felt their employer does treat them with dignity and respect still had significant concerns. Time prevents me from going through the rest of the survey, but I urge the Minister of State to have a look at it.

What was particularly disappointing was the initial response from the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, who suggested that caution should be exercised in extrapolating the survey's findings across the entire sector. To be clear, the findings in the survey are entirely consistent with the previous Cush report, which was accepted by the Minister for Education in 2016. They are entirely consistent with multiple reports from the HEA and TASC and NERI statements on precarious employment. The survey is consistent with the recent OECD report on academic career precarity for early career research. While the Minister has urged caution as regards the report, it adds to the substantial body of research and work already done on this topic, all of which calls for immediate Government action, but there has been no such action. The Minister has talked the talk as regards dealing with this issue; he has actually done nothing. I will give the Minister of State a prime example. The Oireachtas joint committee on further and higher education called on the Department to carry out a complete review as regards precarity across the sector. That call was made last year, and 18 months on nothing has been done. The Minister likes to talk about how he is tackling precarity in the third level sector; he has done nothing about it. He is failing the sector and failing these employees badly, and it is incredibly frustrating and damaging to the sector.

I look forward to the Minister of State's response.