The Union of Students Ireland (USI) published the results of its survey, which asked political parties running in the general election their stances on a number of issues.
Their survey found none of the governing parties responsive with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party providing no answer for the vast majority of issues. While the Green Party provided no response, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil responded No to the question of abolishing the contribution charge on a phased basis.
The other issues included in the USI survey were: funding affordable student accommodation, funding third level courses through the medium of Irish, a minimum 28,000 Euro stipend for PhD students, improving access to transgender healthcare in Ireland, funding Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to get one counsellor for every 1,000 students and enacting the Occupied Territories Bill. The questionnaire was sent out in the form of an email containing 7 questions asking about the party’s commitment to these issues.
Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit answered Yes to all these issues, signifying that they would like to enact all of the proposed policies if elected into office. Labour answered affirmatively to all issues as well, rejecting only the funding of third level courses through the medium of Irish.
The University Times spoke with USI’s Vice President for Campaigns, Nathan Murphy, who detailed the contents of the survey as well as who USI contacted for each party. The survey was sent by email on September 13th. Murphy stated: “I followed up multiple times for those who didn’t answer” and that “…we asked the party spokespeople for higher ed and the parliamentary party chair or those in charge of the party manifestos”.
From Sinn Féin, Mairéad Farrell, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and and David Cullinane were contacted. Murphy detailed the process saying, “Mairéad came back on the trans healthcare question and directed us to ask David Cullinane their spokesperson on health”.
Regarding communication with the Green Party, Murphy said, “Pauline O’Reilly is the green spokesperson and was in charge of their manifesto, we had met her shortly before we asked these and still received no response”.
Further, communication with Fianna Fáil was facilitated, however, ended shortly, with Murphy saying that, “Fianna Fáil got back with Malcolm Byrne who wanted a meeting and then stopped replying when pushed the questions again”.
Finally, Fine Gael was contacted and answered the email, however, they said that they would not answer any questions before the finalisation of their manifesto.
From the Social Democrats Gary Gannon and Cian O’Callaghan were contacted. Labour’s Annie Hoey and Duncan Smith were contacted and People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Baret was reached out to.
Since the release of the results, People Before Profit have commented on the results of the survey on Instagram stating that “[Fine Gael and Fianna Fail] couldn’t even bother to answer students.”
The results of the survey were released 18 days before the polling day.
