Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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1166. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a TU postgraduate gets €10,000 less than other postgraduates; if there is funding for this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62806/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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On 1 October 2024, 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. This level applies to all PhD students in receipt of funding from Research Ireland, irrespective of the Higher Education Institution they attend.

Of the approximately 10,000 PhD student enrolments annually in Ireland, in the region of 3,000 receive stipend awards from Research Ireland and approximately 1,000 do so from other public funders. Roughly 2,000 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 remaining approximately 4,000 PhD students are privately funded, either by the individual or the employer.

Institutional scholarship supports received by PhD students from their higher education institution are funded primarily by the core funding provided to the sector, which has been progressively increased by the Government over recent years as part of the Funding the Future policy. The use of core funding is at the discretion of each higher education institution whose autonomy in this respect is established in legislation.

For those PhD students in receipt of stipends from national competitive funding agencies outside the remit of my Department, the level of stipend awarded and its Terms and Conditions is at the discretion of each funder and its parent Department.