SENATOR Paul Gavan, Sinn Féin Seanad spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, has this week called on Minister Simon Harris to address the issue of precarious working conditions for PhD researchers and early academics in third level institutions.
Speaking in the Seanad, Senator Gavan said: “Let us be frank – you do not end up with 11,200 lecturers on short-term contracts by accident. It is not some kind of natural phenomenon that occurs from time to time.”
“We have so many lecturers on temporary contracts because political decisions were made by this and previous Governments,” he said.
“For too long the talk about this State building a knowledge economy has not matched the reality on the ground. Nowhere is this clearer than in the treatment of PhD researchers and early career academics.”
“These are the people who are supposed to be doing the research upon which this knowledge economy will be based,” Senator Gavan said.
“The time has come for action. This state won’t be able to build a knowledge economy off the back of precarious labour,” he concluded.
