The first Comhairle of the 2025/2026 academic year for the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) took place today, October 14th, in a packed Goldsmith Hall. Motions including a motion to renew the position of Off-Campus Officer, to elect the Joint Honours Committee by Comhairle, and to condemn the Dual BA Programme’s role in the punishment of pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University. All of these motions passed. Elections also took place, with multiple PTO, Convenor, and Committee roles being assigned to elected Trinity students throughout the night.
Reports:
The first report of the Comhairle was meant to be given by President of TCDSU/AMLCT, Séan Thim O’Leary. However they were unable to give their report as they are still on medical leave.
The first report actually given was by TCDSU/AMLCT Education Officer, Buster Whaley. In his report he stated that his major campaign promise of “Modular Billing” has been sent to the undergraduate studies committee to set up a working to investigate it further.
Modular Billing is the concept where if an undergrad fails one module they are able to still progress to the next year and only have to retake the failed module rather than the entire year. This would bring Trinity in line with the rest of Irish universities.
Whaley continued that this years class rep elections have had the highest voter turnout in SU history, with 24-27 per cent of the electorate voting. Which is the highest proportion in SU history. Whaley has reported that 600 people self-nominated for class rep, the highest since Covid.
The only item in Welfare & Equality Officer Deidre Leahy’s report was the promotion of SHAG week, Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance Week. Communications Officer Channing Kehoe reported that during Freshers Week €8,000 was earned for TCDSU/AMLCT.
Entertainments (Ents) Officer Orla Norton, reported that they hosted the first ever exchange student event week. The Pav Marquee hosted 34 events with 54 societies. Oifigeach na Gaeilge, Aoife Ní Bhriain, announced plans to make the Union “not just symbolically bilingual but functionally bilingual”.
Editor of The University Times, Charlie Hastings, gave the first ever report at Comhairle for the UT in TCDSU/AMLCT history.
Motions:
Several motions were also brought to the first Comhairle. A motion to renew the position of Off-campus officer was proposed by Health Sciences Convener, Grace McNally. The Off-campus Officer’s role is to represent students who have a significant portion of their lectures and education take place in off campus locations i.e students on placement at St. James hospital. There was no debate and the motion passed without significant contest.
The motion on the election of the Joint Honours committee was brought afterwards. Boyd Stephen, who originally proposed the motion, spoke in favour of it, asking that the election be “put back in the hands of representatives”.
Finally, the motion calling for the condemnation of the Dual BA by the student union was proposed by Chair of Trinity BDS, Harry Johnston. This motion saw a fiery debate, with several speakers speaking for and against the motion. After lengthy discussion, the motion was passed.
Elections:
Five new part-time officers were elected – the postgrad taught officer, postgrad research officer, student-parent officer, mature student officer (latter two automatically elected as only one person ran for each position). Additionally, Laurie Redmons was elected for the newly restored position of off-campus officer.
Thirteen new members of the campaigns committee were automatically elected for the 13 spots. Lastly, two members were elected for the Education Committee – to represent students participating in internships and wet lab based courses, before the Comhairle was brought to a close and the remaining elections pushed to the next one.
Comhairle ended as scheduled with a multitude of elections and discussion items left on the docket, despite a motion to suspend standing orders in order to add more time to the two-hour council. Next Comhairle will take place on November 4th in Goldsmith Hall at 6:30.
—CORRECTION– October 16th 12:20 pm
Aoife Ní Bhriain’s exact quote is “functionally bilingual rather than symbolically bilingual”, further, this was said during a speech endorsing an emergency motion, not during her report.
