The government recently pushed the registration fee to €2000 per year and cut the student ‘non-adjacent’ grant.
Despite having the capacity to stage a concerted campaign of mass mobilisation, the students’ union (USI) leadership has instead called meekly for ‘a cap’ on the registration fee.
Clearly the strategy of lobbying has been a complete failure.

Research shows that 40% of students have had their rent deposits unfairly withheld by landlords.
USI lobbying and soft persuasion were a half-hearted attempt to win concessions from the state like a ‘deposit protection scheme’.
The result however has been wholesale increases in fees and charges.

The only way for the USI to prevent the planned re-introduction of full fees and hikes in the registration charge is to get thousands onto the streets like the pensioners protests of December 2008.