Irish Excellence – just a rant

Just received a job add – adverstising a job at UCD. It may be poiting out an interesting strategy of third level education: completely overpaid professorial positions (in an international comparison), probably reasonably well paid “core staff”, that has to work for the money, and a rather large number of jobs for people who are ready for self-exploitation, working in casual “contract” positions (you MAY TAKE IT as purely accidental that I did not say anything about the work of professorial positions in this country – you MAY …)
It is worth an additional remark. The president of UCC has an income that is shamefully high (I always say: arguing on the ground of morals is useless although some social work and social policy colleagues still don’t get this). And this shamefully high-earning individual suggests that working conditions, security of positions of researchers and lecturers should be more precarised (see the dispute on Tyndall) etc.
And another professor – of maths – claimed not long ago (in a personal conversation) that social science cannot claim the name science.
I am wondering if these people have anythinbg else to offer than a large bag for huge sums of money. But perhaps they don’t have even that and follow in one or another way the traditional way of carrying money: in envelopes.

Sure, you may read this also in a wider context, looking at the Irish crisis, the definition of excellence ….