2025-12-11

214. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science whether he will introduce a sectoral minimum wage of at least €30,000 for PhD researchers. [67836/25]

There are in the region of 10,000 PhD researchers in this country. It is accurate to say that much of the higher education system is run on the basis of their exploitation, because the vast majority of them are earning less than the minimum wage for teaching in our universities and institutions. Will the Minister commit to treating them as workers and to paying them a minimum wage of at least €30,000 a year?

Under budget 2025, additional funding was announced for Research Ireland in order to increase its PhD stipend level to €25,000, representing an increase of 31% in just two years. This announcement builds upon my Department's consistent focus and progression on this issue. That came into effect from 1 January this year and, given the significant growth in such a short space of time, I have no immediate plans to increase the figure further. The €25,000 was the ask very recently. It was a significant increase on what was there previously and we have done that now. As of this year, we have reached that €25,000 figure for PhD stipends. My Department has also implemented the recommendations of the independent review of State supports for PhD researchers for an optimum stipend level of €25,000. This review exercise was the first time that PhD provision in Ireland was comprehensively reviewed. For those 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. Put simply, those agencies under my remit and my Department and in receipt of funding from Research Ireland are providing the €25,000 stipend. There may be other funders outside the remit of my Department which have their own arrangements, but certainly they are all encouraged, at least, to reach that threshold. There are also institutional scholarship supports, sometimes provided by the higher education institution, primarily, and of course there are some private sector sponsorships, etc., as well. In terms of the higher education institutions and universities, how they use and distribute their core funding is at their own discretion. They are autonomous institutions and those in the private sector will have their own arrangements they enter into with individuals freely. There is a degree of discretion on those but certainly the agencies I fund and control are required to meet the €25,000 stipend and I understand that they are doing so.

First of all, only 30% of the people in question get the Research Ireland €25,000. That increase happened because of a sustained campaign by postgraduate workers and PhD researchers, but huge numbers of them do not get it. It should be a minimum requirement and €25,000 is also, frankly, poverty wages. It is a stipend, of course, so those in receipt of it do not get any of the normal benefits associated with working even though they are workers. In fact, I met with AMLÉ and the Postgraduate Workers Association during the week and one of their biggest demands was to be treated as workers, as is the case in other countries. This Government often goes on about research and development but, compared with their international counterparts, including in Germany and the Netherlands and best practice in the rest of Europe, our researchers, the people who actually do the front-line research and teach people in our higher level education institutions and universities, are treated terribly. Is the Minister not going to change that?

One of the first things I changed was the equipment and infrastructure available to them. Just last month, I launched the new Inspire programme. This is a €750 million capital envelope to support research infrastructure and equipment across our higher education institutions. That was a very clear ask of me by the research community and it had long been sought. Coming into the role, it was something I was determined to address as soon as possible, and I was able to secure funding through the national development plan to do that. That is now live. That call is starting and will be opening in the new year. It has been welcomed almost universally across the research sector. In terms of the PhD stipends, the statistics the Deputy mentioned are fair. I think 3,000 of the 10,000 students are supported by Research Ireland, 1,000 by other public funders, 2,000 by institutional scholarships from the universities directly, and then 4,000 are funded through the private sector or the employer. There are 4,000 supported by the private sector and 3,000 by Research Ireland and, for the 1,000 supported by other public funders, it is within the discretion of those public funders to choose how to use their funds.

The very best figure of €25,000 is poverty level. In a cost of living crisis and with the cost of accommodation, it is poverty level and they do not get any of the benefits because it is a stipend, even though in reality it is work. They do not get maternity leave, sick pay or any of the normal benefits workers would receive, even though their counterparts in the Netherlands and Germany get much higher wages and are treated as workers, with a sliding scale of wages. That is good treatment of researchers, whereas ours are living in poverty in the most precarious of situations. I contrast it with the fact that hundreds of millions of euro extra were given out in the research and development tax credit during the budget. The big winners were the big corporations. The research and development tax credit is now up to €1.4 billion, with most of that going to a small number of multinationals. A small portion of that money could lift our PhD researchers out of poverty. Will the Minister address the fact that these PhD researchers who keep our system going are living in poverty?

I fully support the research and development tax credit of 35%. In fact, I engaged with the then Minister, Paschal Donohoe, to seek it. I think it is really impactful for the research and innovation and advanced knowledge industries. That ultimately is what creates the resources, jobs and enterprise and, indeed, creates the tax intake that allows us to deliver the public good in other ways. Many of our PhD students may well aspire to work for those same institutions when they complete their education, and many of them may do so in actuality. I would not make any assumptions as to the recipients of that funding. I worked in the sector before I was in political life and a number of smaller institutions, including indigenous ones, also availed of those kinds of supports. On the stipend itself, my understanding is that the ask was €25,000. The Deputy mentioned the campaign in that regard. A 31% increase was achieved in two years. That is quite a significant increase by any standard. Another point to note is that as the researchers not classed as workers, they do not pay any tax, PRSI or USC. It is entirely tax-free. That is a corollary to bear in mind on that.