Another Lobby Finished!

USI host an annual lobby of the Oireachtas. This year we held it in the first semester as opposed to semester 2, which had been the tradition. The Lobby is a useful tool in getting the USI message out on certain topics. Our main topics for discussion yesterday were:

1. The Registration Fee
2. Grants
3. Quality
4. Staff Moratorium
(Visit www.usi.ie for the lobby document)

The day went very well; we have well over half the members of the Oireachtas turn up. The informal setting adds to the occasion and many frank discussions were had between members and USI and College SU representatives. Again Mayo had all 5 TDs attend the Lobby, an interesting fact that is rarely mentioned. Enda Kenny was the only party leader to attend the Lobby but we have many other representatives from across the political spectrum attend.

The members who are more in tune with current trends within the higher education sector were very eager to discuss issues, in particular the issue of quality, with us and were all very helpful in giving ideas on how to forward our agenda of student participation within the quality mechanism.

It was a pretty long day, with the first member coming at 8am, the last to leave was at 7.40pm, all in all and exhausting day for all involved. Buswells were perfect hosts for the day and ensured that we had ample amounts of tea, coffee, biscuits and sandwiches for the parliamentarians so they had no excuse for not attending!

With the high numbers attending (and the front of the Irish Times stating that there was more students in the country than farmers) indicates that third level education is something which our political class (some people have issues with this word – but I think you can get the meaning of the sentiment) is now comfortable discussing and indeed recognising the role of the student within the process.

We took many excellent photos on the day and in due course they will be available on our website.

So now let’s hope that this will be seen as an important date along the road to achieving the goals set out in our lobby document!