Press Release                                                                                   

Students Are Fighting For Their Future Now

Date: Tuesday October 1st                                                           Location: Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.

STUDENTS from the Dublin Region and Maynooth will unite today (Tuesday October 1st) to fight for their future at the #DublinDemo. The nationwide “Fight for Your Future Now” demonstrations are taking place today to protest against potential cuts to the maintenance grant in the upcoming October Budget 2014. The 2 hour demonstration will begin outside the Dail on Molesworth Street. Speeches will be delivered to a large crowd throughout the demonstration.

Students from TCD, DIT, IADT, NCI, IT Tallaght, IT Blanchardstown and NUI Maynooth will gather at Molesworth Street at 4pm to express their collective voice on the upcoming Budget 2014.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) warned the Government last week, that students are ready to demonstrate their electoral power in the upcoming Seanad referendum. With voter registration drives underway on campuses across the country, USI expect to have 10,000 students registered on the Student Elector Registration Database (SERD) by polling day on October 4th.

With the budget fast approaching, students across the country are preparing to fight the rumored 100 million euro cuts to education. Students are mobilising their voting power via SERD, more cuts will be met with targeted voting ahead of next year’s Local and European Elections.

It is imperative for the Government to listen and have the cost of college top of the agenda when making budgetary decisions. Fighting for the future of students now is crucial to the economic recovery of Ireland.

Paddy Guiney USI VP for Campaigns said:

“Students today face many challenges and that’s even before they engage with their degree. The rise in the cost of living, ever-growing student charges, and year on year student supports getting cut across the board, have left a place in college a distant reality for many students.

Students are demanding the government to see that we cannot take any more cuts. We’re demonstrating outside the Dail and asking our elected representatives to protect students, protect future generations and protect families.

We will be lying down along the pavement and each student who takes part will represent a student who lost out on third level education because of the high cost. It is time for the Government to really listen to us, before the whole country becomes a ghost town”.

Speakers will include: Paddy Guiney USI VP Campaigns, Joe O’ Connor USI President, Students’ Union Presidents and Member Unions Dublin Region and NUI Maynooth.

For more information contact USI Communications & Research Executive Grainne O’Reilly on 087-6776636, or 01-9052100