Further and Higher Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

We talked earlier on about big announcements without people knowing they were coming. I met earlier with representatives of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation and Aontas na Mac Léinn Éireann, AMLÉ, the national students' union, about the surprise announcement from Research Ireland that it is pulling out of graduate and postgraduate schemes for PhD and postdoctorate funding. People will now be applying directly to colleges and universities. They are extremely worried that this has come out of nowhere and about what it may mean for the stipend, for the autonomy and independence of postgraduate students and post-doctorate researchers, along with many other concerns. Will the Minister say something to reassure them?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23