The Union of Students Ireland (USI) has voted to lobby the Irish government to take into account students’ financial difficulties if and when reforms are made to the coronavirus unemployment payment.
USI’s national congress voted in favour a motion today that will see the union push for a coronavirus pandemic unemployment payment specifically designed to address financial losses experienced this summer by students – who the motion said “would have taken on many more hours in employment this summertime to pay rent, living expenses and to save for the coming academic year”.
Speaking in favour of the motion, Niall Ó Dálaigh of Maynooth Students’ Union said there was a need for a payment to address the specific needs of students.
Referring to the current emergency payment available to anyone who lost their job due to the pandemic, Ó Dálaigh said that “the Irish government has acknowledged that it’s not sustainable in its current state”.
“If the payment is means tested by an average of working hours from before the pandemic hit, students will be means tested based on hours worked during the semester, which tend to be significantly lower than the summer time.”
The motion passed today comes in the wake of recent comments from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about the emergency payment, which have fuelled debate over the government’s long-term commitment to financial support for those made unemployed due to the pandemic.
Speaking on Today FM last week, Varadkar said that “there are examples of people who are actually getting more on the pandemic unemployment payment than they got when they were working part-time”.
However, Varadkar announced today that there would be no change to the pandemic unemployment payment for the foreseeable future. Speaking in the Dáil, he said that “people who are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment will continue to get it beyond the 8th of June. The economy is only slowly opening up now and it is going to have to be extended – nobody needs to worry”.
USI congress is taking place entirely over Zoom due to the pandemic. Earlier today, delegates shut down a motion that would have seen the union’s president reach out to youth and student wings of all political parties “to unite students of all political persuasions”.
The “sensitive” motion stirred a lengthy debate, with proponents – including president Lorna Fitzpatrick – arguing that students of particular political beliefs felt alienated from the union.
Those who opposed the proposal said that it was “unrealistic”, and could compromise USI’s apolitical stance. One argued that it could see the body become a union for youth political parties, rather than for all students.
