Latest news with #JamesLawless
Irish Post
3 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Post
Ireland reveals new plan to modernise construction sector
A NATIONAL plan has been launched in Ireland which is designed to modernise the construction industry. The Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) Action Plan provides a framework to support the adoption of modern, innovative tools that can improve the sector among the firms that work within it. It was revealed at an event held at the National Construction Training Campus in Offaly's Mount Lucas where work to build a new National Demonstration Park has now begun. "I am delighted to publish this landmark Action Plan which will assist in the accelerated adoption of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), a significant representation of my Department's and the Government's commitment to meeting national skills needs,' Ireland's Further Education Minister James Lawless said. Minister Jim Lawless addresses the event in Mount Lucas "In addition, the National Demonstration Park will be Ireland's flagship centre for MMC showcasing, learning, and innovation. 'It will build industry and public confidence, technical expertise, and a national ecosystem around MMC." The MMC Action Plan, which has been developed by the Department of Further and Higher Education in partnership with industry and education providers, sets out 58 targeted actions across eight themes to scale the adoption of MMC across Ireland. The Demonstration Park, which is co-funded by three government departments, will be operated by the Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB). Work has begun to build the National Demonstration Park It is designed to 'showcase leading MMC techniques, provide immersive learning, and support the growth of a national innovation ecosystem', it was confirmed this week. 'The National Demonstration Park for MMC at Mount Lucas represents a pivotal moment for construction education and training in Ireland,' Joe Cunningham, Chief Executive of LOETB, said. 'This isn't just about showcasing cutting-edge building techniques; it's about creating a living classroom where trainees and students, apprentices and professionals can experience, hands-on, the future of the industry.' He added: "The educational value of this park lies in its ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice, providing immersive learning opportunities that will equip our workforce with the vital skills needed to deliver on national housing and sustainability targets." The Demonstration Park will house live examples of MMC across a variety of MMC technologies. It will also serve as a research and training space for new entrants, upskilling professionals, and MMC innovators. The first units in the Demonstration Park are expected to be completed by the end of 2025, with training and industry and public engagement activity scaling throughout 2026.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Plan to slash number of workers needed for housing targets through modern methods of construction
The number of workers needed to deliver around 50,000 houses per year could be slashed by as many as 10,000 under plans to ramp up training in modern methods of construction (MMC), the Government believe. The Coalition is hoping that productivity gains from using MMC to deliver buildings like modular units can reduce the number of workers needed to achieve housing targets . The Programme for Government target is for an average of more than 50,000 homes a year to be delivered every year between now and 2030. A recent Department of Further and Higher Education report on residential construction and retrofitting skills suggested that to meet such a target just under 80,000 construction workers would have to be recruited. READ MORE [ Almost 2,000 applications for just 20 Dublin cost rental homes Opens in new window ] However, under a scenario using more MMC the number of required workers to meet that target was projected to decline by around 10,000. Minister for Higher Education James Lawless will release an action plan aimed at delivering thousands of workers skilled in MMC on Monday. He said the plan 'marks a big shift in how we deliver construction in Ireland, faster and smarter with the skills to match.' Mr Lawless said: 'Housing demand will continue to intensify and meeting that demand means building differently and building better. That's what this plan enables.' The plan includes upskilling initiatives, new training pathways, and the development of skills such as digital proficiency, logistics, and quality control to support factory-based and off-site construction. Mr Lawless said: 'Modern Methods of Construction offer a faster, more efficient, and more sustainable way to build. By moving much of the process off-site into factory settings, we can dramatically reduce build times, ensure quality, reduce waste, and lower costs over a projects life cycle.' [ Local developers have key role to play in attracting international investment for housing Opens in new window ] Minister for Housing James Browne said: 'It is critical we have the top quality people to deliver on what we have to build. That's needed quickly and it has to recognise the skill of this work.' A spokeswoman for Mr Lawless said the action plan 'lays the groundwork to significantly increase the adoption of MMC, through expanded training provision, new accredited courses, a dedicated traineeship starting later this year, and practical on-site training at the National Construction Training Campus in [Co Offaly]'. She said: 'Through this co-ordinated approach, a path is available for thousands of learners to gain the modern skills needed'. Last week Taoiseach Micheál Martin turned the sod on a new headquarters for CPAC Modular in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. Mr Martin said MMC will play an 'increasingly important role' in house building, in particular in reaching the 50,000-per year new-builds target. Housing delivery will have to increase significantly from the 30,330 dwellings completed during 2024 if the Government is to deliver on its pledge to deliver more than 300,000 by the end of 2030.
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
I am often asked by students how to plan for a career in research. I tell them to move abroad
In the 1940s, the USA began recruiting the best scientists they could attract from Europe. Oppenheimer's Trinity test in New Mexico was undeniable proof of science's essential role in competitiveness and defence. Since the second World War, the USA has viewed science as an existential priority. They understood that their position was predicated on being at the frontier of key emerging technologies – a view which has been vindicated by the space race, the internet, mRNA vaccines and artificial intelligence. The results are clear. By 1920, Germany had accrued more Nobel Prizes than any other country. But since 1945, the USA has won more Nobel Prizes in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine), than any other country, by an enormous margin. The USA is credited with 310 Nobel laureates in science, with the UK in second place at 89 and Germany at 71. Of those who did their work in the USA, over a third were scientists who migrated to America. Competitive science requires competitive individuals who know no borders, and raise the standard of research in their environment. Minister for Higher Education and Research James Lawless recently outlined a bold vision to attract top US-based academics to Ireland through our new national funding agency, Research Ireland. This ambition signals a real desire for Ireland to become an international leader in science and innovation. But excellent science requires two things: talent and money. Europe has no choice but to view research and innovation as fundamental to our competitiveness and security Research is expensive, and the US government has invested nearly $200 billion a year into research and development, including about $50 billion to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the world's leading funder of all biomedical research. The USA has also reaped the economic benefits. A recent analysis shows those grants supported 407,782 jobs and $95 billion in new economic activity in 2024. That translates to a return on investment of $2.56 for every $1 in grant funding. READ MORE Now the world is shifting. The Trump administration is engaged in a co-ordinated attack on science; by drastically cutting government research support , directly attacking universities, marginalising international scientists and students, and dismissing scientific facts . The long-term outcomes are unclear, but many US-based academics are looking for alternatives . In a recent poll by Nature, more than 1,200 scientists – three quarters of all respondents – said they were considering leaving the US, with most looking to Europe or Canada. The scientific world is also shifting, and we may soon be approaching an Oppenheimer moment in artificial intelligence at a time where European security is under threat from Russia. Europe has no choice but to view research and innovation as fundamental to our competitiveness and security. Ireland has plenty to offer the scientific world. Our assets include a liberal university environment, a large number of professional researchers and crucially a constant stream of bright, adaptable and hard-working research students. Ireland also has a strong scientific diaspora, of which many individuals are luminaries of their fields. However, Ireland did not manage to benefit from the wave of academics who left the UK after Brexit. And that's at least partly connected to what's missing: a predictable supply of competitive, indigenous research funding. Ireland cannot compete with the USA – but Europe can, and Ireland has the opportunity to lead a new generation of European research by acting quickly Recruitment of international scientists needs to be coupled with a revitalisation of our domestic research base and university infrastructure. Research funding, previously through Science Foundation Ireland, led to Ireland's scientific renaissance of the late 1990s and early 2000s. But we never quite emerged as a European leader due to the financial crisis of 2008. In 2023, an open letter by 2,000 members of the academic community noted that 'Ireland is at real risk of being overtaken by other EU member states as they invest more in their research and innovation systems'. This is an understatement. Eurostat data shows that Ireland's research expenditure as a proportion of GDP lags well behind Italy, Spain and Poland. We spend under 1.2 per cent of GDP on research, substantially behind the EU average of 2.3 per cent. A similar picture is seen with the more accurate metric of research expenditure per inhabitant , where Ireland contributes under €200 per person per year, well below the European average of €275 per person, and just behind Italy at €230. In contrast, Denmark spends €555 per person per year, on par with the USA. The solution is obvious. While visiting Dublin in March 2025 , the president of the EU's premier funding agency the European Research Council (ERC), Maria Leptin, recommended to the Taoiseach that the Government should triple the budget of Research Ireland to a total of €1 billion per year. Such an investment would rapidly transform Ireland into a European leader in science and research, and create a world-leading research environment that would benefit our own graduates and attract international scientists. This would force us to improve the living standards and support for PhD students, particularly in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Ireland cannot compete with the USA – but Europe can, and Ireland has the opportunity to lead a new generation of European research by acting quickly. This would attract further European investment, for example the ERC has created a €500 million package for recruiting top international researchers to EU member states. [ 'Don't come to Ireland': PhD researchers offer advice to US colleagues Opens in new window ] What are we missing out on by not increasing our research funding to internationally competitive standards? Apart from boosting the quality of our universities, we are losing out on economic returns such as the vibrant biotechnology and applied science clusters that naturally build up around centres of research excellence such as Basle, Zurich, Vienna, Cambridge, and Copenhagen. Domestically, we should aspire to the best outcomes seen in smaller European countries. Fintan O'Toole recently observed that Denmark is a global hub for clinical research and Ireland isn't . With proper investment in science, the halo effect on industry could help Ireland transition from a manufacturer of other people's drugs to a hub of innovation where new drugs and treatments can be invented, tested and owned. Science and research represent a public good that allows us to nurture the potential of our young people. When I lecture at Trinity I am often asked by eager students about how to plan for a research career. They are usually disappointed when I say they should plan to move abroad. We have the opportunity and means to change that. Tomás Ryan is professor in Neuroscience at the school of Biochemistry & Immunology at Trinity College Dublin
The Journal
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Journal
Applications open for the free college courses on offer for the next academic year
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW open for Springboard, an initiative that offers free and heavily subsidised college courses. The courses on offer for this year were announced last week . They are mainly available in areas aligning with national economic priorities such as infrastructure planning, sustainable building, renewable energy, digital skills, cyber security, and artificial intelligence. You can view here the full list of courses made available. The courses are provided 'at certificate, degree, and masters level leading to qualifications in areas where there are employment opportunities in the economy'. Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said that the initiative is 'one of the most impactful' investments made by the government in further education. The courses on offer are designed to respond to evolving skills demands. 'It offers thousands of learners the chance to upskill or reskill in areas where Ireland needs talent from artificial intelligence to infrastructure planning to cybersecurity,' he said. Lawless added that Springboard is meant to make upskilling more accessible and achievable for everyone. Advertisement It will deliver 7,719 places across 249 courses for the 2025/26 academic year. All courses will commence between 1 July and 31 October 2025. Courses are flexible and accessible, with 96% delivered online or in blended format, designed to support working professionals, jobseekers, and those returning to further education alike, the department said. Some of the universities offering courses that are covered include Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Cork, University of Galway, University of Limerick, and University College Dublin. A large number of places are also available in technological universities and institutes, with a large volume available for applications in ATU campuses across Ireland. You can check your eligibility for the initiative here . You must have a valid PPS number and be living full-time in the Republic of Ireland. 'Applicants currently unemployed, or seeking to return to the workforce after a career break to care for loved ones, qualify for a free place on a higher education course,' a statement said. If you are in employment, 90% of the total fees are covered by Springboard, with the remaining 10% covered either by the applicant or their employer. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
We are PhD researchers with advice for US colleagues: Don't come to Ireland
It's the time of the year again when candidates from around the world will be accepting offers to pursue a PhD at Irish universities. At the same time, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless wants to offer Ireland as 'a welcoming host for the best and the brightest' researchers fleeing the US university system. Reports this week revealed that the Trump administration has ordered a pause on new appointments for international student and exchange visitor visa applicants , which may encourage more candidates to look towards Ireland. But as PhD researchers in Ireland, we have some advice: do not come to Ireland for a PhD, unless you enjoy grappling with a long list of injustices. The idea to go public with this message emerged from members of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation (PWO) , which was born out of a need for a union to directly deal with the challenges faced by PhD researchers. We know that by writing this, we face possible consequences for our career paths. That is why not all of those who have been involved in shaping the argument presented here are able to have their names attached to it. READ MORE As of this year, a stipend of €25,000 per annum is the most that any PhD researcher in Ireland makes. It is below the minimum wage of €27,378 and far below the living wage of €29,913. Some of us started our PhD at an abysmal stipend of €16,500. But this recent increase is not uniform: while some universities have raised it for their internal scholarships, others have remained silent. Some other funders have promised to match the increase, but this has been extremely inconsistent and unreliable: only last month the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland confirmed the delivery and backpayment of the increase it promised at the start of 2024, after 15 months of delay. Meanwhile, some of us are completely unpaid and self-funded, and some are on exploitative contracts that include both full-time teaching and research responsibilities for stipends as low as €10,000 per annum. Many researchers from outside the EU choose to come to Ireland on such paltry stipends without knowing the extent of the housing crisis here, the inability of universities to provide adequate housing, and often the lack of sufficient funds to conduct our research. Non-EU researchers are subject to much higher costs, including the annual fee of €300 towards renewing our Irish residence permit and mandatory private insurance. No other country in the EU requires a PhD researcher to pay such a high fee for a residence permit. Additionally, non-EU researchers face high costs and barriers when it comes to conference travel and the relocation of their spouses to Ireland. These injustices are not simply the outcome of bad policy, but are rather part of a model being set by the Irish higher education system. There is a clear, if never directly stated, agenda to abandon the idea of higher education as a public good and move towards a business model; PhD researchers, especially those from outside the EU, are at the coalface of this movement. [ Low-paid PhD students: 'I work three part-time jobs to make ends meet living in Dublin' Opens in new window ] The strategic plan of Irish universities is to increase research output and attract more international (read non-EU) PhD researchers, but these documents lack any mention of an increase in funding to support this. Given that it is much more difficult for non-EU researchers to access Research Ireland funding, many of these may be 'self-funded'. This can only mean one thing: universities are moving towards an extractive research model, aiming to exploit non-EU researchers both through their unpaid labour and by relying on their extortionate fees to help balance the books. But can universities afford to pay for the labour that sustains them? Rather than providing a public service in the form of teaching and research, universities are increasingly run like businesses, trying to balance the books Despite them constantly citing a lack of funds, we know that many of our institutions are running budget surpluses and are not acting so frugally in other areas. Dublin City University made a profit of €5 million from student beds in 2022, the Business Post reported. The University of Limerick was recently engulfed in controversy over a €5.2m overspend on the purchase of new student accommodation . Maynooth University last year issued a €500,000 tender for a taxi service with 'no wait time' for 'priority passengers' including 'a number of the university's staff'. This was only slightly more than the whopper amount spent by the University of Galway in its 2023 rebrand . Like with many systemic injustices in this country, the issue is not a lack of resources, but political decisions about how to distribute them. Rather than providing a public service in the form of teaching and research, universities are increasingly run like businesses, trying to balance the books and bring in external funding at every opportunity. This means less public funding for a diverse set of research, more research directed and funded by private industry, and an increase in PhD candidates from outside the EU, who, instead of being paid for their work, will be charged extortionate fees to 'study' here. This also means that underpaid PhD researchers have to teach undergraduate courses: our plight, hence, is tied to the quality of education we are able to provide in classrooms. The Irish Government is keen on positioning itself as the next best destination for higher education, academic excellence and innovation, especially in response to turmoil in US academic institutions. But how long can that reputation be sustained given the treatment of international PhD researchers? [ If you want to see how democracies cede to autocracies, watch as US universities bend to Trump Opens in new window ] The PWO has been consistently advocating for an employment model of PhD research. Plenty of examples of this exist across the EU . Why would you do your PhD in Ireland when you can get decent pay, working conditions and dignity as a researcher in Germany or Sweden? In countries like Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden, PhD researchers pay taxes and have the right to unionise, and these countries also score better than Ireland across innovation indices. Clearly, treating PhD researchers as workers leads to better outcomes. The fact that the majority of PhD candidates in all departments across all universities in Ireland are non-EU says a lot about how Irish higher education relies heavily on their exploitation, and all indications are that this model is being expanded. We should not be misleading candidates about PhD life in Ireland. It is short-sighted for the Irish higher education system to exploit PhD researchers, who will surely head out the door as soon as they have their degree. Until the education system reflects how it treats PhD researchers, we will keep telling everyone: do not come to Ireland for a PhD. Criostóir King, Luke Mac Carthaigh and Beatriz Carazo del Hoyo are members of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation
