Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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418. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the scholarships that will be available to PhD candidates for the period 2023 and beyond given the merger of Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council and the announcement of the Innovate for Ireland Initiative. [38230/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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419. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the stipend provided as part of the new Innovate for Ireland PhD scholarships will be taxable income. [38231/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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420. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has considered increases to stipends paid to PhD candidates funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board and other Government funded bodies as an emergency cost of living measure or commensurate with the announcement of €28,000 stipends as part of the Innovate for Ireland initiative. [38232/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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421. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide additional detail on the operation of the new Innovate for Ireland PhD scholarships particularly in relation to eligible research areas, industry partner input in the award process and any special requirements that will apply to recipients of the scholarships, for example work placement and industry partnerships. [38233/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 418 to 421, inclusive, together.

Innovate for Ireland (I4I) is an innovative programme aimed at attracting and retaining research talent in Ireland. The purpose of the programme is to attract high achieving world class talent who might not have considered undertaking a PhD programme or, if they had, would not have considered Ireland as a location.

The support package being developed for I4I is designed with comparable international programmes in mind, and will apply only to students qualifying for the programme, i.e., an initial tranche of 400 students. The next step in implementing this proposal will be a competitive call for proposals from consortia of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), this is being developed and should be initiated later this year. Thus, details of the scheme are still under development and the final shape of the scheme will be framed once proposals have been received and fully assessed.

It is similarly too early to comment on what impact a new competitive research funding agency might have in this space, other than to observe that the new agency will be supporting researchers at all career stages, building on the strengths of both of the existing agencies

It is important to note that the stipend is not the only source of funding available to PhD students. My Department also supports students through SUSI at all levels, including PhD.

In relation to whether the I4I stipend will be taxable income, I wish to advise that taxation policy is a matter for the Department of Finance, and that it’s a matter for the Revenue Commissioners to determine tax liability in any individual case, but there is an exemption for stipends given to people in full-time education. I am advised that the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides, in certain circumstances, for a tax disregard for an exhibition, bursary or other similar educational endowment

On the issue of stipends in general, my Department provides funding for postgraduate research through both Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC). Funding is also provided by other statutory funders and, of course, private funders. Some students also self-fund. Stipends are frequently a feature of funding globally, providing an income to the awardee in recognition of the need to devote themselves on a full-time basis to their research

My Department is monitoring the issue of stipends, in the context of the resources available to my Department and the competing needs to which they can be allocated. In that regard, I was pleased to be able to allocate additional funding to the IRC in 2021 to enable it to increase postgraduate scholarship by €2,500 per annum, or 16%. This was made effective from 1 January 2021 and, together with an increase to funding for postdoctoral salaries, benefited close to 1,300 early-career researchers in the system. The move also aligned the stipend level for both agencies within my Department, i.e. the IRC and SFI.