Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Following on from what Senator Norris was saying about the number of students on governing bodies being very small, as a student who sat on a governing body I can say it is a very intimidating space to walk into. I was an adult who had worked in different sectors of society for years and I still felt intimidated by the level of knowledge in the room, the academics in the room, people who had been doing the governance of Trinity for years and knew it inside out. It takes a while to catch up. As a student president on a board like that, I was in a minority, not only in the sense that I was just one person but also that I had years less experience than any of the people in that room. Sometimes something would happen in a meeting before there was even time to catch it.

We need to make sure, legally, that institutes of technology have strong representation in these spaces because their student unions are still only developing and are not as strong as those in the rest of the university sector. It is a very intimidating space to be in and we should make sure we protect students in that space by accepting amendment No. 20.