Over 20 students from UCD occupied the office of Paul Gogarty Green Party TD for Dublin Mid-West and Spokesperson on Education in Lucan Village. This is in protest at the increase in college registration fees to €1500 per year and the possible full re-introduction of fees.
The occupation is organised by the campaigning group, Free Education for Everyone (FEE), and is part of a national day of protest across the country against fees organised by FEE. Protests are also planned in Cork and Galway today.
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The following is a report from D. O Falluin from NUI Maynooth FEE who was outside Paul Gogartys ofice during the occupation:
I arrived outside the Green Party TDs office around 2.30PM.
Straight away I was asked by the Gardaí where I was going to. They had already taken details from others, and it was fairly clear they hadn’t a clue what was going on to be honest. They maintained a constant presence outside the building, asking those of us who showed up late to “move along now” with talk of ‘Public Order Offences’ and the sort, all despite the fact we had no banner and were creating no disturbences. Bizarre. There were half a dozen of us outside at the time the occupation ended, and we were threatened with arrest on several occasions, though for what I’m still not exactly sure.
The office was held from around 1.40 until just before 4.00. Speaking to those inside during the course of the day they all seemed in very good spirits. Two members had left before the end of the protest, and were taken to the local Garda station. Those inside had intentions of sticking around until 9pm or so, which to be honest seemed a realistic ambition given the absolute cluelessness of ‘the boys’ outside.
Around 3.45 it became obvious to those of us outside the Gardaí were about to move in, at which point contact was made with those inside to let them now. A Garda vehicle first went to the back of the building, but later reversed to the front. Several of the FEE activists who left the office appeared to us to be handcuffed (cable ties?) and all seemed in very good spirits, even joining in on our chanting. The Gardaí refused to tell us what station they had been taken to, and in fairness to him the man was nice enough to actually direct us TO the bus stop and wish us a safe journey home!
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Cork:
Over twenty students occupied the UCC’s President’s Office for over an hour this morning before being removed by the Gardai. No reports of arrests.
Galway:
Over twenty students occupied the office of Eamon O’Cuiv, Fianna Fail TD and Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The gardai removed them after an hour and a half.
Free Education for Everyone is a campaigning group of students set up to fight the re-introduction of fees and for genuinely free education for all. FEE groups exist in UCD, Trinity, Maynooth, UCC, UL and NUIG. FEE activists have organised protests, occupations and blockades across the country over the past number of months.
