He might have watched them on the telly. Or listened to their chants broadcast on the radio. He might have even waited until the following day and read all about it in the national press.
Or perhaps, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe locked himself away in his office and chose to ignore the cries of 15,000 students marching on the streets of Dublin City.
On February 4 this year, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), of which DCU is not a member, and grassroots organisation Free Education for Everyone (FEE) organised a large scale protest through the capital, the second this academic year. Its aim was to show the government that students are strongly opposed to the reintroduction of fees.
Chants of “No cutbacks, no fees, no Fianna Fail TDs” echoed through the student-heavy crowd. Many raised homemade placards, blew whistles and banged on drums. It was, as protests go, quite successful, but it did not force an immediate turnaround in government decision.
After the budget announcements in October it looked as if senior citizens were more capable of shaking the government than students. Their protests took place on the same day in autumn but it was the actions of the OAPs that saw the government back-track on the over 70s medical card debacle. Students are yet to see such results.
Despite a lack of movement on the government’s end however, the first march to Leinster House was just one event which has kept the campaign against fees in the newspapers.
Last October, at least two people were arrested when 100 students staged an anti-fees blockade of a UCD event being chaired by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Then, on December 5 last year, 11 UCD students were arrested after barricading themselves in Green Party education spokesperson, TD Paul Gogarty’s office and on February 3, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was booed and jostled in NUIG by a group of 20 student protestors.
Minister O’Keeffe is due to put forward a plan to the Dail in April and reports are circulating that fees or a similarly costly student contribution system will be implemented as soon as September. According to the Minister, fees will be paid by people who can afford them, but the parameters surrounding such a means test for families has not been made clear.
Minister O’Keeffe recently told the Irish Times: “At a time of difficult choices for the public purse, there is a strong equity argument that those who benefit from higher education – and who can afford to contribute to the costs of their higher education – should be asked to do so.”
So with his mind seemingly made up, will student protests do much good? It seems that university union heads agree that protests alone will not amount to much.
USI president Shane Kelly says: “To look at the process in isolation is to fail to look at the bigger picture. Protests are not isolated incidences…they’re part of a wider mood-changing process… Overall the campaign has been very successful and we’d hope it’s been taken seriously.”
Similarly DCUSU president Niall McClave believes that the marches are just a small part of a grander plan in the fight against fees.
He says: “I think we have to show the government that we will resist fees and we have to use every tool at our disposal to do that, protests alone won’t do it, but they’re an important part of what we need to do.”
One part of the aforementioned bigger picture is utilising the voting power of students. Voting power has long been used to direct government policy and in November DCUSU ran a campaign that reminded students of the importance of registering to vote.
DCUSU are also stepping up their postcard lobbying campaign which began last semester. Anti-fees postcards were sent to DCU president Ferdinand von Prondzynski and now they are available to send to Minister O’Keeffe.
FEE is also calling on a one day shut down of all Irish third level institutions and is looking for support from other social groups around the country so the government will be more likely to sit up and take notice of students’ requests.
Julian Brophy, spokesperson for FEE in UCD says: “[We need] large support from other social groups such as the trade unions, the teachers in our colleges, secondary school students, and pensioners. Without their support, the government won’t take the student movement seriously.”
Support or no support, the fight against fees continues. If, or when, the fees are reintroduced students and parents will generate revenue for the universities which will only stand to replace the funding previously given by the government. But until the formal discussions in April, students will remain to be a loud voice that even Minister O’Keeffe will find hard to tune out.
