Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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673. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to clarify who are the recognised worker and employer representative bodies for the purposes of sectoral bargaining in the university sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52509/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Within the Higher Education Sector, staff representative bodies and the employers have signed up to the terms of the Building Momentum agreement.

Under the agreement, a Higher Education Sector Oversight Group (HESOG) was established to consider relevant matters that could not be resolved via local engagement. The membership of HESOG includes DFHERIS, the Irish University Association, the Technological Higher Education Association, institutional employers and the six trade unions operating in the higher education sector, namely CONNECT, FORSA, IFUT, SIPTU, TUI and UNITE.

It is noted that only one of the unions (the TUI) opted to use the Sectoral Bargaining Fund element of the Building Momentum agreement to address grade or sector based pay claims.