Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House and look forward to engaging with him. I know he will bring a lot of thought to one of the most exciting briefs we have.

I am going to go into a couple of issues. I will start with a piece the Minister knows, which is that higher education plays a crucial role in shaping not just the careers of the individuals who move through it and the economy, but also the society. It is one of the ways we engage. It is the space for the ideas we need for the future, which will be challenging and where we will face hugely difficult global questions, as well as national questions. Ireland can and should be playing a key role in that regard.

One of the important things in terms of getting the best from higher education is investment. The Minister will be aware how far behind our European peers we lag in that regard. We must also ensure that we have the diversity we need in higher education and that those in higher education have the security to be able to do the work and to think about challenging and creative ideas. Many years ago, I launched a report called Living with Uncertainty. It looked to some of the key areas in precarious work, right across Irish society. This was approximately eight years ago. I was surprised that higher education emerged as one of the main areas of precarity. Since then, I have learned an awful lot more. The Minister will be aware that, back in 2023, the Seanad unanimously passed a motion that I put forward calling on the Government to engage specifically with the Higher Education Authority, universities, higher education institutions, trade unions and other organisations to look at regulations around the use of fixed-term and part-time contracts and contacts of indefinite duration, and to consider legislation to ensure that those employed to teach earn a living wage and there is minimal use of the hourly contract approach. The statistics from the Irish Federation of University Teachers show that 36% of workers consider themselves precariously employed. Of those who are on these short-term, nine-month contracts, 61% are not getting paid for the periods between terms. They are kind of disappearing out of the system and not getting that continuity. Another 31% work on an if-and-when basis.

When you are in that level of insecurity, it does not just stop you making plans for your life or make it impossible for you to get a mortgage or make it hard event to rent, it also means that you are not secure enough to do long-form or frontier thinking, which forms the building blocks of new ideas. Innovation is often framed as something that lands as quick ideas with start-ups. Innovation often comes from years and years of expanding what we understand, which creates the space for what new things might be possible. Building relationships in research is much harder when people are going year to year on contracts. It also affects diversity. Those who do not have the safety net of family or other money, those who are coming from diverse backgrounds and those who have children, particularly women, are more likely to leave higher education and go elsewhere. We lose wonderful people. This is an appeal to the Minister to address these areas, which should have been addressed, frankly, when the HEA Bill and the research Bill went through, but can still be and should be addressed.

I will move to some other areas of that role and make another appeal. I will discuss public-public partnerships. I met the former Minister of State, Mary Mitchell O'Connor. There are all these rules around public-private partnerships. I once submitted a parliamentary question asking about public-public partnerships and was asked if I meant public-private partnerships. For public-private partnerships, there are memorandums of understanding, MOUs, and all of this discussion. Public-public partnerships are crucial, especially when we look to things such as climate change and consider what we have seen in, for example, south-south exchanges. A delegation from South Africa, including the higher education minister, was here last week. There is huge scope for collective work with public investment. If the Covid-19 pandemic taught us anything, it was the crucial role of public research, and so much research is funded publicly, being available for public benefit and for the public good. The partnerships we can have across the world, not just within the European Union, are crucial in that regard.

I will talk about partnerships within the European Union. I have long been a champion of Horizon funding. There were many positive things within it, including the drive for gender equality. The Athena SWAN programme came from Horizon. However, I am very concerned that, as the successor to Horizon is being negotiated, there needs to be a strong voice for the ethical in that conversation. We know that, in July, the European Commission proposed suspending Israel from the Horizon programme due to the increasing humanitarian disaster but it failed to reach a majority at that time. Israel has been one of the largest beneficiaries of Horizon research funding. A total €1.3 billion came from the EU Horizon research programme 2014 to 2020 and a further €1.1 billion has come since 2021. Some of that funding has gone, for example, to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. A sum of €2.7 million was given to Israel Aerospace Industries, a major defence, intelligence and weapons systems manufacturer that advertises combat-proven technology.It is advertising weaponry and technologies of war that have been used in Gaza in breach of international law and basic humanitarian decency.

Consultations for the next round of Horizon Europe funding are ongoing. The consultation began in September and the deadline for inputs is February 2026. I urge the Minister to be a strong voice on this issue. We need the majority in relation to suspension from the existing programme, but the negotiating of the new programme must start from a presumption that we do not enter that programme in a context where we cannot be sure of how the research into these technologies will be used. Will it be used to further our collective humanity, by addressing issues like climate and others, or will it be used to inflict misery on our fellow humans? It is still possible to suspend for the 2028 to 2034 period and it is possible to shape the next Horizon Europe programme in a way that is really effective.

My final point is one I promised I would mention. I was very happy to be at the launch today of the global citizenship education report from the Irish Development Education Association, IDEA. The Minister will be aware that there is huge potential for global citizen education in higher education, not simply for those who study international affairs but in terms of global citizenship as a perspective right across many disciplines from the sciences through to the arts. Supporting that kind of connected, joined-up thinking from those in higher education is a real opportunity. IDEA's report includes a list of ideas from youth work focus to research funding and educating higher education policymakers. I know the Minister will look with interest at the report and its strategic plan. Crucially, this is an area whereby we can help to create the ideas people for the future. This applies not just in higher education but also in further education. Those who come back from life experience to re-enter education need to acquire skills but they do not necessarily come just to be trained for specific jobs. They come in with life experience, which can be absolutely transformative for particular disciplines.