Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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965. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current distribution of PhD stipend levels across HEIs and funders; the number and share below €25,000; if he will set a national baseline of at least €25,000 with annual indexation; to publish the full-year costings and implementation timeline for raising sub-baseline awards to the new floor; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51417/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Under Budget 2025, additional funding was announced for Research Ireland in order to increase its PhD stipend level to €25,000, i.e. an increase of over 31% in two years. This announcement builds on the increases secured under preceding Budgets, demonstrating my Department’s consistent focus and progress on this issue. It has come into effect from 1 January 2025.

In doing so, my Department has now implemented the recommendation of the independent review of State Supports for PhD researchers for an optimum stipend level of €25,000, subject to funding availability. That review exercise, announced in October 2022, is the first time that PhD provision in Ireland was so comprehensively reviewed. Of the approximately 10,000 PhD student enrolments annually in Ireland, in the region of 3,000 receive stipend awards from Research Ireland, spanning the higher education institutions and research disciplines.

For those approximately 1,000 PhD students in receipt of stipends from national competitive funding agencies outside the remit of my Department, the level of stipend awarded is at the discretion of each funder and its parent Department. It is understood that at least some of these agencies have increased their stipend level to €25,000.

Approximately 2,000 PhD students receive some level of institutional scholarship support from their host higher education institution, with the assistance of core funding from the Higher Education Authority. The scholarship level is at the discretion of each legally autonomous higher education institution.

The remaining approximately 4,000 PhD students are privately funded, either by the individual or the employer.

In light of the foregoing, I am satisfied that significant progress has been achieved in funding support provided to PhD students.