FEE occupied the constituency office of Fine Gael TD for Dublin South East Eoghan Murphy
“We believe that education is a social right and it should not be apprehended at any cost and it should be available for everyone,” Ben McCormack, leading member of FEE told The University Times. “We’ve chosen this office because he is one of the local TDs for the UCD area and one of the first TDs in Dublin to say that fees would definitely be on the agenda.” FEE went on to say that changes cannot be made by “marching up and down” and that the occupation that USI staged last week was a step in the right direction.
“Somethings could have been tactically worked out better, but in the end it is a first step and I hope that if the budget is unfavourable to students and areas of the education sector that USI won’t just stop and they continue with the campaign,” said McCormack.
Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has announced that the student contribution for third level education charge will increase by €250 in the 2012 Budget. The increase will secure savings of €18.5 million. However, FEE do not consider this to be a victory stating that: “It’s not a good thing. The student fee has been increasing for the past fourteen years or so and it’s still increasing. We have to continue the fight for a better education.”
FEE wanted to emphasise that the occupations was the beginning of a further campaign to oblige ordinary students to get out there and “demand a decent education system”.
In response to the occupation TD Eoghan Murphy said that he “understood why they were there” and that he did not support the increase in the registration fee. “There were demonstrating to show their dissatisfaction, but I would have preferred if they had told me about it first.” Murphy stressed that the changes to the budget showed a €5 increase a week to contribution charges and that the grants had been left untouched for undergraduates. He said that the 4 per cent decrease in undergraduate maintenance grants was “reasonable given the circumstances”.
USI representatives have criticised the increase to student contribution. They indicated to The University Times that were also not satisfied with the government’s claim that the student charge increase will be “a once-off”.
FEE’s Twitter account posted shortly before 5PM that the occupation had ended. The tweet said that the group had “gotten Eoghan Murphy to come from Dáil”. It continued that they “have another meeting with him next week” and that the end of the occupation was “negotiated” with “no arrests”. Murphy pointed out that Gardaí could not let the occupation continue due to the sensitivity of information in the office. “They were moving for arrest, but I didn’t want that to happen so we negotiated to let them go.”
FEE’s occupation was the second underway today, with representatives of NUI Maynooth’s Students’ Union continuing their occupation of Anthony Lawlor, Fine Gael TD for Naas’ constituency office.
