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]

Sentiment score: 0.13

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?

Sentiment score: 0.10

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?

Sentiment score: 0.09

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?

Sentiment score: -0.05