Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This issue arose on Committee Stage.

It is an important one because historically, students have always been represented by their student union and it is really important that a student union has autonomy from the institution and the university. To me, it is very similar to a workplace situation where workers decide whether to join a trade union and have representation through that trade union. The current wording regarding a representative body brings to mind an institution basically trying to put in its own body instead of actually recognising the student union. There has been a lot of talk today about staff but not much about students, who are obviously really important in all of this. The wording of my amendment and that of Deputy Catherine Martin's amendment goes a lot further to recognise the autonomy of a student union and how important it is that students are represented and a student union is given a mandate by students. If this amendment does not pass, we will see an erosion of student rights, which I would regret, so I hope people will support this amendment. It is something that student unions feel very strongly about and it is an important amendment.

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