Dublin Institute of Technology Students’ Union (DITSU) is the latest students’ union to vote overwhelmingly to support a repeal of the eighth amendment, with 83 per cent of the voters choosing to keep the union’s pro-choice mandate.
In February 2016, DITSU’s council passed a motion “to support the campaign towards repealing the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution”. The union’s constitution dictates that this must remain the union’s stance for five years. In December 2017, it was decided that a referendum would be taken on whether this policy should be maintained or changed.
With just over 3,000 students voting in the referendum, 2,510 voted to support repeal while 532 voted against.
In an email to The University Times, the Union of Students’ in Ireland (USI) Vice-President for the Dublin Region, Aisling Cusack, said that she was “delighted to see another students’ union come out with strong support for a repeal of the 8th”.
“However, with just 73 days away until the referendum, its important that the book doesn’t stop with mandates”, she said. “Students’ Unions need to make sure their members know the facts and reasons to repeal the 8th. We need to keep talking to our friends, families and colleagues about the importance of getting this atrocious law out of our constitution.”
DITSU is the latest in a number of students’ unions that have pledged their support to the repeal campaign. On Thursday evening, over 250 students gathered in Front Square before joining the larger March for Repeal at the Garden of Remembrance. Students from Trinity, University College Dublin (UCD), DIT and beyond all gathered to hear speeches from sabbatical officers, members of USI and repeal campaigners. Across the island, other unions in Galway, Cork and Belfast attended events to show their support of the repeal campaign.
