Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2023
99. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in light of his recent announcement to increase the stipend for SFI and IRC PhD Researchers if he will now commit to a minimum national stipend for all PhD Researchers, regardless of their current funding source; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45685/23]
View answer106. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to outline the justification for only raising PhD stipends to a meagre €22,000 per annum, when an independent national review of State support for PhD researchers last May recommended a figure of €25,000 per annum. [45748/23]
View answer111. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will make a commitment that other PhDs directly reliant on government funding outside of IRC or SFI will receive an increase in their PhD stipend. [45542/23]
View answer145. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will increase HEI block grants to facilitate an increase in university awarded PhD stipends in line with the stipends awarded through the Science Foundation of Ireland and the Irish Research Council. [45583/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 99, 106, 111 and 145 together.
In November 2022, I commissioned an independent National Review of State Supports for PhD Researchers; the first time that this issue has been considered holistically in this manner.
In their first report, published in June, the Co-Chairs recommended an increase towards an optimum stipend level of €25,000, subject to funding availability and cognisant of the impact of any stipend change on public finances.
Under Budget 2024, I have secured funding to increase the PhD stipend provided by the competitive funding agencies under my Department – Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council to €22,000 per student per annum for their approximately 3,000 stipend awardees. This is an increase of approximately 16%. This builds on the increase that I secured in Budget 2023 and demonstrates strong and substantial progress on this issue.
There are approximately 2,000 PhD students who receive institutional scholarships of varying levels from their host higher education institution. These are financed primarily from the core funding provided to each institution by the Higher Education Authority. Under Budget 2024, I have secured an additional €60m in core funding for the higher education sector, in line with the Funding the Future policy, again building on the increase that I secured under Budget 2023. In keeping with institutional autonomy, the use of each institution's core funding allocation is at its discretion.
For those PhD students in receipt of stipends from funders outside my Department (estimated to be in the region of up to 1,000), the level of stipend awarded is at the discretion of each funder.
