Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I support these amendments, which are vital in terms of defending student unions as representative, independent institutions of their members, which means they can operate effectively to represent their members on whatever issues arise instead of the potentially Orwellian scenario of the technological university deciding which body it will be dealing with and what body it denotes as a student representative organisation. A very worrying example of where this can lead can be found in Institute of Technology, Tallaght, ITT, where the student union has been very effective. For example, it recently led a successful campaign to defend a students' crèche that was faced with closure as a result of cutbacks. In recent weeks, ITT has made moves to cut the full-time student union secretary position, a position that plays an important role in terms of dealing with administrative, secretarial issues for the student union. The institute of technology has just unilaterally cut that, which is a massive cut to the resources available to the student union and means that instead of being able to deal with the issues they are meant to be dealing with, the student union sabbatical officers are drowning in paperwork, which is quite a conscious decision by the institute of technology. The cutting of the position undermines the ability of the student union to offer essential services to the student body and the result is unacceptable backlogs in services and essential facilities effectively being closed. That student union is campaigning to maintain its independence and resources so that the institute of technology does not have the capacity to just cut and damage the ability of the student union to operate. I ask the Minister of State to comment on that situation if possible, to support the student union campaign to have that position restored and to endorse these amendments, which are vital.

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