The new Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) sabbatical team has arrived. President Sean Thim O’Leary, Education Officer Buster Whaley, Welfare Officer Deirdre Leahy, Ents Officer Orla Norton, Communications Officer Channing Kehoe, and Oifigeach na Gaeilge Aoife Ní Bhriain officially took office on the 28th of June. The new leadership comes during a careful time in higher education, as the government plans to effectively increase annual student contributions by €1,000, discontinuing the fee reduction that has been in place since 2022.
Speaking to the University Times, O’Leary, Whaley, and Norton expressed a spread of emotions and thoughts after the first week of their tenure. On starting to settle in, Whaley cheerfully said “It’s good!” with Norton adding “handover week was really helpful” expressing enthusiasm over “getting on well with the other officers”. O’Leary stated that they feel like they “fill the boots of the role”. They mentioned speaking at a staff protest last week, feeling some initial nervousness that was let up by the legitimacy of “speaking on behalf of the student body”. Adding that the “responsibility of the office breaks down [their] anxiety”.
The officers stressed the importance of increased transparency from TCDSU in the year ahead. O’Leary has taken to posting daily Instagram story updates of how they’re spending their time day-to-day, something they said they’d “like to keep doing”. They added they were ready for “more consultation and more transparency”. Whaley mentioned that TCDSU would “hopefully have some town halls and send out some polls in order to make sure students were centred in campaigns and policy decisions.”
O’Leary, notably, was very involved in both the impeachment proceedings attempted against László Molnárfi, (President 2023–24), and the censure of Jenny Maguire (President 2024–25) and Hamza Bana (Welfare & Equality Officer 2024–25). When asked about the last few years, O’Leary said “Things shouldn’t be able to get to that kind of stage, ever” adding “I’m more than happy to bring about forms of accountability”. Whaley candidly mentioned that he is “new to the SU” and as he is assessing the SU’s “inner workings” he is looking to make some changes as there is “a lot that could be done to optimise”.
On specifics, O’Leary raised that “on matters of constitutional reform, and honestly everything, those are things that come from the grassroots, that’s the democratic spirit.” Adding that previous union teams have “taken more steps towards democratisation [and] transparency” and they are hoping to “push it much further on that line”. “More town halls, increasing engagement in every way the union operates, more consultation” and “making sure as many people are able to see and take part in their union as possible.” They aim to “bring to the table” students who are concerned about accountability within the union. O’Leary admitted “there’s a significant challenge with respect to trust” but that they “have the utmost faith in the union, that the union can fight for anyone, and as it stands [the union] is the most effective vessel to seek change.”
All three sabbatical officers who spoke with the University Times were excited to discuss what they hope to accomplish in the coming year with a week under their belts on the job. Norton mentioned being “able to do a couple of large-scale events like Pav Fest”. She specifically cited “using the campus space a lot and bringing it to its full potential”. She is hoping to “incorporate live music” and “trying to centre on students and campus in a big way”. She mentioned being “grateful to everyone last year” who “set the groundwork”, and feeling “set up very well to do what I want”.
Whaley said, “The big one is modular billing” calling the initiative his “main objective in terms of a long-term project”. He reflected that he thinks it’s a “pretty realistic goal” though adding it is “likely to take some time, so it probably won’t happen in the next year, [but] you get the ball rolling, set up some working groups, and it remains my biggest goal”. Beyond modular billing, Whaley had the opportunity to tour the new student centre and was “happy to see there’s a full commercial kitchen” which was his “vision [for] the space”. He continued that “it’s hard to have a really ambitious education officer [to] try to tackle it all at once” because the job is “a mix between union governance and running elections, setting dates for council, holding referenda, sitting on committees, and a lot of casework.”
O’Leary referenced their manifesto when talking about their plans for the upcoming year, clarifying that some points exist “where the spirit of them is the much more apparent and important thing”, citing kettles and microwaves as something that can be achieved in multiple ways. Furthermore, points like engagement that would mean “collaborating with other sabbatical officers, like Channing”. They continued that “a lot of things in my manifesto are lobbying points, and those are easy to keep the promise on, anyone can say they’re going to do lobbying.” That “there’s a real opportunity to achieve results and leave the union in a better state.” O’Leary did say that the “one very big all-encompassing thing is the fee hike, if I were to say anything I hope to accomplish it’s that this fee hike doesn’t go through.”
O’Leary called the fee hike “a spit in the face to students, coming out of nowhere, a complete reversal of Fine Gael’s election commitments”. They emphatically stated that “it’s going to cause more people to drop out of college, push to homelessness, skip meals, it’s utterly outrageous”. Adding “this shows the government doesn’t value education as a human right” demanding that the government “immediately reverse the fee hike and commit itself to higher education funding”. They specified that “higher education per capita receives less funding than it did in 2008 by quite an order of magnitude.”
Whaley called the fee hike “terrible.” Explaining “It’s hard enough as it is to pay for college, and it shows the government backtracking on what little they were doing for students before”. He also noted that “the fee hike was announced when most student unions in the country were doing their handovers”. Norton also mentioned the fee hike being “out of the blue” but that TCDSU is “doing what we can do”. All three sabbatical officers discussed the protest happening later today outside of the Dáil, and their high hopes for turnout and change-making. O’Leary said, “We will be there as your union reps” as Whaley commented that it will “show people aren’t going to waver”.
Despite the fee hike, the sabbatical officers are eager for the year to begin. Norton said she was “very excited for the year ahead” knowing that if she is having a hard time “I can pop down to their offices and say ‘Hi! Help me!’”. Whaley continued, saying “I think it’s going to be a great year. We’ve got good things; everybody is on the same page with objectives and what we want to do.” O’Leary said they were “ready to be in the thick of it”. That they “feel well-prepared”. O’Leary ended with saying that “now is the time to take the union and make it into that force for good that a lot of us see it as capable of being.” Expressing that “It’s time to put my money where my mouth is in terms of making the union a good union.”
