Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is almost a contradiction there. The Minister of State has spoken about the pillar impact and recognising how important the people working on the careers are in that, but then he says that the agency does not have a remit. However, the Minister of State is setting up the agency. He cannot simply say the agency does not have a remit because he is establishing it. He can give the agency the remit and he has the opportunity to do this. These amendments are amendments to the objects and the functions of the agency, which is the remit of the agency. These are the actual tools by which one gives an agency remit. I hope I am not in this position but if I am raising again the issue of precarity in our higher education institutions two months, six months or a year from now, the Minister of State can perhaps say then it is not in the remit of the agency. However, this is the moment here and now when he is choosing not to make it part of the remit of the agency. To be really clear, that is a choice and an option and it will not be an adequate answer for any future Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to say the agency does not have a remit in this regard. That was a choice. It is a choice being made right now.

To be clear, the Minister of State outlined a scenario whereby everybody is getting the same deal and the same contracts, but that does not match up with what is happening on the ground. In seeing the impact of precarity on research, you need to look a little bit wider than merely at those working in research. There are 11,200 lecturers who have been employed by universities and higher education institutions in Ireland on a temporary or casual basis in recent years. This means that over 11,000 people are employed on a temporary or casual basis. When you are employing somebody on a temporary or casual basis, perhaps as a lecturer, that is going to impact on their capacity to do research. I know research is wider than academia but specifically focusing on the academic world and higher education institutions, some of those same individuals who are teaching - indeed, some of those same postgraduate students who are teaching - are also those who have reached a level of education and expertise whereby they have the capacity to do important research, to innovate and to come up with new ideas, but they do not have the space or security to engage in research when they are on an hour-by-hour contract for giving lectures.

As I said, precarity within the research world is not simply for those who are employed under research contracts. Precarity, and precarity in higher education institutions and how it impacts on research, is also revealed in those who end up not working or continuing in research even though they have the expertise, the understanding, and in many cases, the insight that has the potential to contribute in an extraordinary or an important way to the addressing of those common challenges. The impact of precarious contracts is not just visible in who is there and in their conditions. It is also visible in who is not there. I have mentioned previously the fact that the diversity is not going to be there in the area of research. There can end up being a two-tier system where there are those who never get to a point of security. The Minister of State mentioned a number of things at which he was looking. One thing he did not mention, and which he may be able to mention or address, is the employment control framework whereby there is a limit left over from the austerity period. There is still a constraint on our higher education institutions that is blocking them from giving permanent contracts. In fact, it is requiring them to give temporary or casual contracts in areas which are core to the functioning of their departments. Again, there is more the Government can do on this. I will be following through in each of the other areas where the Minister of State says he hopes to address it. A huge opportunity is being missed by not addressing it in this Bill. If he did have comments regarding the employment control framework, that would be welcome.