The Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) President Jenny Maguire and Welfare and Equality Officer Hamza Bana have successfully pressured the Provost to double the funding allocated by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to tackling period poverty at Trinity College Dublin. Funding has increased to €44,000 as of October 24th after the College initially refused to provide additional funding above the €22,000 allocated by the HEA in 2024.
In 2023, TCDSU and Estates & Facilities launched a free period product scheme funded by the Trinity Trust. Period product dispensers were stocked on a daily basis with products from Riley, an Irish-owned brand that makes biodegradable products with zero bleach, toxins or harmful chemicals. This came after Trinity was excluded from the Irish Government’s roll-out of free period products in further education and the training sector in 2022. The funding provided for the free period product scheme ran out after two months and the TCDSU President and Welfare & Equality Officer have been lobbying for sustained and increased funding since.
There is also a petition titled Free Period Products in All Higher-Education Institutions linked on the TCDSU website that currently has 3,322 signatures of the 4,000 signature goal. The petition says that “by tackling period dignity head-on, we can directly tackle stigma and shame around periods for students and staff, thus making our campuses more inclusive places for members of our academic community from all backgrounds. Quality of learning and teaching is affected by menstruation – and we do not want anyone to get caught out by not having adequate products in those moments.”
A report, which was drafted by the Period Poverty Sub-Committee of the National Strategy for Women and Girls Strategy Committees and published by the Irish Government, found that between 53,000 and 85,000 women are at risk of period poverty in Ireland, with those experiencing homelessness or addiction particularly at risk. In TCDSU’s 2023/24 Housing Survey Report, sixteen students reported that they are either currently homeless or in temporary accommodation. Additional risk factors include being in a financially controlling or abusive relationship, belonging to certain disadvantaged minority groups or being a member of a one-parent family.
The 2020 report includes a framework to address this issue, citing Scotland’s £5.2m scheme to pledge free sanitary products to students at schools and universities nationwide in 2017, making it the first nation to do so. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said some students’ unions provide period products leading to and during exam week, while others provide products from their office(s) year-round, on request. As of 2017, the cost of those schemes has ranged from €200 – €400 per year, which was described in the government report as “very reasonable”.
