Jack Leahy | News Editor
Between 3,000 and 5,000 students are expected to take part in the Union of Students in Ireland’s protest march tomorrow ahead of next week’s budget announcements.
Students will march from the Garden of Remembrance, through the streets of Dublin to a rally outside the houses of the Oireachtas. The rally is the latest action in USI’s campaign to protect student supports and have education recognised as a public good.
Members of the Irish Second-Level Students Union, the Defend the University campaign, and the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) will address those gathered at Molesworth Street having pledged their support for the USI’s ‘Education is’ campaign.
Dublin acoustic hip-hop act Original Rude Boys announced on their Twitter page last week that they are to perform at the rally outside of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Rap artist Temper-Mental MissElanyous was confirmed in September.
Despite Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan last week announcing that she hopes to protect student maintenance grant levels in this budget, student representatives are not counting any chickens. Should anticipations come to fruition, this event will represented the largest single mobilisation of Irish students for three years.
Students’ Unions from across the republic have organised buses to transport students to and from the event, while students from Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster are also expected to attend. Northern Ireland’s student leader, NUS-USI President Rebecca Hall, this morning spoke to endorse the event, stating that she was delighted to stand “shoulder to shoulder with [her] USI colleagues” in doing so.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union officers have been delivering hourly lecture addresses with members of the USI officer board in an effort to boost attendance from Trinity students. Society chairpersons, sports club captains, students’ union officers, and student newspaper editors released a statement on Friday calling on students to attend the event and challenge the ‘perspective from which decisions are made’
In something of a setback to their hopes, Senior Lecturer Dr. Gillian Martin emailed the student body this morning to warn that students should check with their respective departments before missing labs, tutorials, and seminars.
Undergraduate students had been granted permission to miss class for the 2010 ‘Education not Emigration’ march through the City Centre.
USI President Harmon said:
“Education is Ireland’s hope for a better future – so we’re prepared to work hard to promote the value of it. Students, college staff and trade unions want to work together with other civil society organisations to highlight the central role college can have in the future development of Irish society.
“College is too expensive for many, with the second highest fees in Europe. Meanwhile, the student maintenance grant helps thousands who otherwise could simply not afford to enter third level education. It was protected for the first time in five years in Budget 2014 and needs to be protected again now.
“Thousands of students will be arriving from across the island to tell public representatives and the Government that education is valuable, is worth investing in and must be treated as a public good in this budget and beyond.”
