Higher Education Authority Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2022-09-20
============================================================

Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

I echo the point made that there should be no risk that students' unions are not consulted. The Bill clearly outlines a situation where there may be that risk and later we will come to the question of the very strong risk that students' unions may not be represented on the boards of governing authorities. Again, that is an avoidable risk.
My colleague, Senator Ruane, has spoken very well to amendment No. 86 in terms of mental health.
Amendments Nos. 80 and 87 highlight the importance of trade union consultation and engagement and recognition of precarious employment as a key issue of equality. Precarious employment should be reflected in the equality statement and policies of a university.
I refer to an issue that is not just an equality issue in terms of those who wish to access education. There are huge inequality issues, equality issues and precarity issues for those who work within our institutions be they employees, PhD researchers and those on teaching contracts. Can the Cathaoirleach confirm whether amendments Nos. 111a, 111b and 111c are included in this group of amendments?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-09-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-09-20