Student leaders, including Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) officers, will today discuss trans healthcare for students in a meeting with Fianna Fáil healthcare spokesperson Stephen Donnelly.
Donnelly invited the leaders – including representatives from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and unions around the country – for a meeting about the problems students face with Ireland’s healthcare system.
In an email statement to The University Times before the meeting, TCDSU President Laura Beston identified a number of issues – “from accessible trans healthcare to functioning mental health services” – which she said “we have to improve for the sake of our students”.
“Whilst there is a long way to go before we can claim to provide for all students”, she said, “discussions like these help students in acquiring access to specific services and help ease the pressure that health issues puts them under during their studies”.
Trinity students can currently avail of free GP appointments, as well as up to eight sessions with a counsellor. Students have expressed dissatisfaction with the waiting times for both of these services, with appointments sometimes having to be scheduled two weeks in advance.
Earlier this month, USI attended Dublin’s second-ever Trans Pride march, which called for better access to trans healthcare. TCDSU did not send a delegation to the march.
Earlier this month, University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) announced that it was in talks to provide free Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), which significantly reduces the risk of contracting HIV, to students on campus.
Donnelly co-founded the Social Democrats in 2015. He left the party in 2016, and worked as an independent TD before joining Fianna Fáil in 2017.
On Wednesday, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told university heads that he would consider the implementation of a “voluntary” loan scheme were he elected Taoiseach, and said he “does not believe in abolishing fees”.
Martin also said that the creation of a new department for higher education and research – separate from the Department of Education – “might be the only way” to safeguard the future of the sector.
