Jack Leahy
News Editor
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) have been assigned the task of lobbying Dublin South East TD Kevin Humphreys in the build-up to the announcement of the 2013 budget on December 7th.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) last month announced a reformed budget campaign that would target specific TDs for lobbying based on their perceived vulnerability, political relationship with Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn, or a history of having spoken or voted against the government’s current policy on third-level funding. Humphreys, whose constituency office is based in Ringsend, shares a constituency with Quinn and has been identified as politically vulnerable based on his having been elected on the tenth count of votes in the 2011 general election.
Furthermore, Trinity College Dublin is located within Humphreys’ constituency boundaries, though if this was considered in assigning Humphreys to Trinity students then it was a matter of locational convenience rather than political agency as a lower number of Trinity students live in their College’s constituency than any other university in the country.
Speaking to The University Times, TCDSU President Rory Dunne outlined his knowledge of Humphreys, stating that he would ‘like to get to know a bit more about him’ before the campaign begins:
‘I’d really like to get to know more about him and to see what motivates him on the big issues. His past as a Dublin City councillor shows that he’s extremely passionate about his area and about his constituents. He’s going to have a lot of new constituents in the constituency drawings; the constituency will include Terenure and other areas that haven’t traditionally been strong for Labour. He might be feeling the pressure even more next time around.
‘I’d like to see an increased presence from Trinity students at his constituency clinics and question and answer sessions. Beyond that, well I’d rather not publicly plan for him not being responsive. I’d like to think that he would be and then escalate things appropriately if he isn’t.
‘We’ll be lobbying in a coordinated approach with other students’ unions to ensure that the students’ contribution doesn’t rise’.
Unfortunately for students hoping to undermine Humprehys’ position within his own constituency, the deputy has, in the last year, been hailed in heroic terms after he came to the rescue of some of his Dublin South East constituents during last year’s flooding by gaining access to hundreds of sandbags that were locked away.
Speaking to theJournal.ie last week, Humphreys explained that a significant number of sandbags kept in storage for the flood-prone seaside constituency were incoveniently under heavy lock, and that he managed to force access to them using a hacksaw:
‘Gaining access was difficult. The city council had not opened the boxes so we eventually got the locks off – by using a hacksaw and pickaxe – at about 7.45pm.’
The sandbags were quickly put to work and saved a number of homes on Gordon, Hope and Howard streets from being flooded.
‘In some ways, I was disappointed with the response to the floods on Monday evening,’ he said last year.
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