Ignore the “great centrists” and fight for free education, 450 Trinity students were told this morning, as they marched from Front Square to join the Union of Students in Ireland (USI)’s March for Education.
While turnout was noticeably lower than last year, a sizeable crowd still congregated in Trinity this morning to show their support for publicly funded education. Led by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), the crowd left to join the rest of the march at the Custom House.
Speaking to the crowd, TCDSU President Kevin Keane called education “a public good”. Calling out Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and other members of the government, he said that they have been “toying with the future of education for far too long”.
Speaking to The University Times before the march today, Keane said the union is “marching because access to education is fundamental to everything the students’ union exists to do”.
Over a year on from the Cassells report, “no decision has been made”, he said. Students still need to fight against the threat of loan schemes, he added.
Mature Student Officer Carly Bailey speaks to the crowd gathered in Front Square.
Addressing the crowd, Social Democrats Councillor and Trinity Access Programme (TAP) Ambassador, Gary Gannon, called on the crowd to not bend to government pressures: “Don’t let the great centrists of our time tell you that we must do it for the balance sheets. It is much more than that.”
TCDSU Mature Students Officer Carly Bailey also addressed the crowd: “I’ll never stop fighting. I owe it to my children and our future generations.”
Thousands of students will march today, just over a year after a government working group report recommended three options to fund higher education. Since then, debate has continued about the future of Ireland’s higher education system, with students and college heads divided over the best funding model. The Oireachtas Education and Skills Committee is currently considering the best model to fund the sector, with Minister for Education Richard Bruton emphasising the importance of a “consensus” around the issue.
Last week, Varadkar intervened in the funding debate, promising that students wouldn’t be burdened with debt in the same way as UK students.
