Students that attended the protest loudly demanded that the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, “keep his promise”. There was a general feeling of resentment towards the Labour Party and Fine Gael among students.
“To stop fees going up and make a good point to Ruairí Quinn that he can’t go back on his promise,” said David Dooley, member of Carlow IT. “We’re making our point today peacefully. We just want to put it across. There’s a big turnout from everywhere.”
Gary Redmond, USI President, told The University Times that he wanted “to ask the Tánaiste once and for all why is he only coming out now against the pre-elected promises. He must have known about that before he made his pre-elected promises.”
With pressure mounting on the minister to deliver cuts for next year’s budget, the government claims that college fees are necessary if the it is to satisfy the demands set down by the ECB and IMF. Redmond contests this view as he commented on the case Michael Murphy, the president of UCC, made for the introduction of fees. “Every single time the student contribution has risen, and it has risen fourteen times, the universities have not gotten a cent of that money. Education needs to be protected in this budget.”
Even postgraduate students felt the push as there was a high turnout from TCD Graduate Students’ Union. With the publication of the cabinet’s intention to abolish all postgraduate grants, postgraduates were urged to fight their corner as GSU President Mary O’Connor said “we’ll be protecting our own backs for possible cuts”.
Socialist Party Leader Joe Higgins mirrored this view as he felt it was extremely important for students to mobilise in very large numbers to resist the huge threat to their eduction. “It’s quite incredible that government, Fine Gael and Labour, are talking about increasing fees and reducing grants at the same time they’re sending billions to bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank. It’s a huge contradiction.”
Furthermore, Higgins advised students that sustained campaign pressure was needed and students’ unions needed to step up their game. He even suggested that students should hold a one day strike on Tuesday December 6, on the day the government announces the budget.
Although students were frustrated by the proposed cutbacks the protest was generally peaceful. Gardaí reported no arrests were made and that the students conducted themselves well.
Free Education for Everybody (FEE) were the only group that was reported to have caused a minimal amount of disturbance to the protest. The group broke away from protesters and made an attempt to occupy Fine Gael Headquarters. This effort was short lived as they vacated the area after an estimated twenty minutes.
FEE then moved on to Trinity College arts block where they went to room 3074 and tried to have an impromptu meeting to recap on the day’s events. As they had no permission to use the room, they were soon confronted by college security and the campus superintendent. Before long a Garda was called upstairs but didn’t intervene as the group left shortly after SU President Ryan Bartlett explained that there was no possible way they would be allowed to stay. The group then briefly considered moving to a room in the GMB but decided instead on a move to a nearby pub.
As the protest continues into the night with a planned sleep-out on Marlborough Street outside the Department of Education, USI officials are pleased with how the day has gone so far.
