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SOME STUDENTS IN UCD are sleeping rough, in their cars and on their friends’ floors as they can’t afford accommodation, the university’s students’ union has warned.
Yesterday, students at UCD took part in a tent protest after it emerged rents at campus accommodation are to increase by 12% in the next three years.
For this academic year 2019/20, it costs between €6,745 and €11,591 in rent for the two semesters in UCD. Most who stay on campus will be paying more than €7,000 to do so.
Even at the lowest end, that’s €749 a month, meaning that rents have risen 76% at UCD in the past decade.
UCD Student Union’s welfare officer, Una Carroll, told TheJournal.ie that some students – who aren’t in on-campus accommodation – have even told her they have stayed in Dublin Airport for the night as they had no alternative arrangements for the night and they face a long commute.
She outlined the types of issues that she sees in her role at the university. “The general and most common example is students presenting at risk or who are homeless,” she said.
“Around 9/10 students that come in here [do so due to] financial difficulties. Recently we’ve had an increase in the number of students arriving in our door carrying sleeping bags instead of their books.
“We have students who are sleeping in cars, their friend’s cars, [or] on the floors of their friends’ accommodation.”
Last weekend, TheJournal.ie looked at the cost of on-campus student accommodation nationwide. We found that it can cost between €5,982 and €8,226 at Trinity College Dublin, between €2,600 and €4,900 at Maynooth University, and from €3,750 (for a twin bedroom shared with another) to €6,942 at NUI Galway.
President of UCD Students’ Union Joanna Siewierska highlighted the pressure of the cost of on-campus accommodation. “One of the key issues is that we are only providing accommodation which is at the top scale. We are not providing accommodation for students which is subsidised,” she said.
“It’s a very targeted plan to have accommodation which is the most expensive,” she added. “This is a public institution and not a business. Our role is to provide education. We have excellent courses and lecturers here. And there are those who have the grades and the ambition to want to succeed here and they should be able to do that.
“We are only accessible to those who can afford the rent. If you’re from a rural town – the message is – if you can’t afford it then don’t come here.”
Students at UCD are preparing for a large-scale demonstration next week.
They are demanding a reversal of the 12% increase to campus rents as well as the establishment of a rental support scheme to support student renters.
Also this week, students called on the University of Limerick to reverse a decision to add a second bed to some of the single rooms in its accommodation.
In a statement UL Student life said it is “appalled” at the situation and said the announcement came too late in the year to allow students time to find alternative arrangements for September.
That is absolutely fantastic news.
Ah!!!!a. A good news story. We will take it. God knows we need a boost
Saw SuperQuinn are doing Cornetto 4 packs for €1.50 also.
Good day alright!
Big or small Cornetto?
That I did not see, Patrick, as I was there for these things myself http://foodieswatcher.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/rowntree-fruit-ice-pop.jpg
Winston you are pissing against the wind! No one on here likes a good news positive story. They only like to bitch and moan. Miserable shower! If the sun doesn’t shine they blame the government.
Ah I know, I just feel sorry for them to some extent. I’ve never seen such a collection of bitter, spiteful little people anywhere else which makes it quite remarkable.
It has lead me, however, to picture SF/PBP/SWP/ULA/ETC meetings amounting to this and not much more though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWNho8g0lsU
Anyway, for more positivity, here’s a good song to eat yer cornettos to tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjPqsDU0j2I
You two should found a smug happy people’s party. Oh right, that’s FG.
Actually, censored, I think you’ll find most of the country is fairly happy in their everyday lives at the moment.
The most common complaint I’m hearing is about the weather, so there’s obviously not too much going on really. Apart from that, most people are just getting on with things so maybe the crowd who want to rant all the time, about subjects they don’t really understand and blame everyone else for their lives problems.
Oh wait, I just described Sinn Fein, People Before Profit and the SWP. You’ve loads of choice!
Wages are well on there way to pre recession levels of 2008 more importantly, level of unemployment stable based on 10′s of thousands emigrating…
Sorry to spoil the only bit of good news.
1 year working holiday visa != emigration.
It’s a 1 year holiday that you can work and support yourself on.
You would swear, by the way some Irish people talk, that the famine ships have been dug back out and are carting their entire families and friends off to plantations.
The reality of the matter also is that most are leaving by choice (see http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0317/breaking1.html) and not through necessity.
I understand that there’s a trend here to sensationalize everything going on in the country at the moment and make it look like Enda Kenny is personally going around and kicking everyone in the balls, but that’s simply not the case.
We’ve a work force where 86% are employed. More companies are announcing jobs and now our exports are up, which if it continues will probably create lots of jobs in manufacturing that those who were in the building trade or other hard hit areas can re-skill and get into relatively easily.
I knew there would be somebody moaning about this
What a load of shit Winston …
I’m not sure if my calculator is working correctly.
Can someone confirm
€336 million spent to create 9000 jobs.
Does that mean €37,333.33 to create one job?
@Winston
I know a lot of people who emigrated and it wasn’t for a 1 year holiday. You are so far out of touch of reality it’s scary. edna kenny is nothing but a compulsive liar and the fact that you stand up for him proves how deluded you are. fine gael shouldn’t be in power, people voted for them because they wanted change and they believed the promise they made but well over a year later they have broke 95% of their promises, they stole peoples votes. Do you honestly believe in what edna is doing? Or are you profiting of it so you don’t care about the people who are suffering in Ireland???
Oh, no I’m quite in touch with reality thanks. I know plenty of people who’ve “emigrated” too, they’ll be back when their visa runs out though, like the overwhelming majority of them.
If parties are put in power purely on the back of the promises they make pre-election then Sinn Fein would be in Government now. Their manifesto is full of fantastic sounding ideas that in reality are way up there with the birds, where the air is thinnest. They’re not though because people vote for things with a little more substance than good sounding talk. So please, spare me it.
We’ve the best people available in Government at the moment. When a better alternative steps up with its offering, it’ll be elected.
@Emer
I’ve been trying to post links of some of the lies fine gael told us to remind winston but they haven’t appeared. Do you know why this is?
Pretty irrelevant, Toirealach. I voted for FG but I had supported FG long before that election anyway so what they said was largely irrelevant.
Point stands, if the success of a party depends solely on promises made before the election then SF would be in Government and would never leave it. They’re not and will most likely never be, which would indicate that the electorate make their votes based on a lot more than just what is said in the run up to the General Election.
If you can’t debate that point then don’t bother replying.
@winston
Why do you always talk about sinn fein???? fine gaels only defense seems to be to ridicule and belittle sinn fein.
“if parties are put in power purely on the back of the promises they make pre-election then Sinn Fein would be in Government now. Their manifesto is full of fantastic sounding ideas that in reality are way up there with the birds, where the air is thinnest. They’re not though because people vote for things with a little more substance than good sounding talk. So please, spare me it.”
Do you not remember all the BS fine gael told people??? They promised everybody everything, it wasn’t financially possible for them to keep all their promises. fine gale whole campaign was full of good sounding talk with no substance.
“Pretty irrelevant, Toirealach. I voted for FG but I had supported FG long before that election anyway so what they said was largely irrelevant.”
So you are a blind supporter of fg and no matter how much they destroy this country you’ll still support them. I can’t believe your mentality, you didn’t even know what their plans were and you voted for them???????????
Uhh ohh Winston, don’t you know that optimism and support of government are expressly banned on thejournal.ie’s comment section. FG/Lab are bad, look at the banks, there still paying the bondholders, Germany have become our masters what will we do ochón ochón. Do people think we are really worse off than when that drunk butcher BIFO was in charge?
If you want to see some of their lies winston just search these titles on youtube. I tried to post the links for you but it won’t let me for some reason?
Irish Government lies on water charges
Are Promises Made To Be Broken ???
Not Another Cent!!! (According to Fine Gael)
John Perry lies about cancer services
Broken Promises
Winston, Obviously people are leaving by choice they are not getting deported, the choice is grim dole life or a life in a country that might appreciate you and not tax the bo#@ox out of you and leave you enough to actually have a life !
86% employed 60/70 % of us are struggling to keep our head above water now never mind the budget coming and the one after that..
What a rosey picture you paint but sadly deluded.
Blind supporter? No, not quite. You see, I’ve been interested in politics here for a lot longer that it seems the anti-government crew here have been, since my memory of politics goes far back beyond the last general election which is the point where most here seem to have gotten interested in the subject. Interested, but not *too* interested, I’ll add.
I’ve watched, met with and talked to the TDs and people who are now our Government ministers a pleasant number of times over the years and am happy with them as people and as representatives on a local and national level. I’m happy that they’re doing it for the right reasons and are trying to represent those that elected them the best that they can. I’m happy with how the party has done and believed at the time of the last two GEs that they were the best party available to be in Government. I still firmly maintain that they are the single best party available and all the results of opinion polls conducted on a fair sample show that I’m certainly not alone in how I feel.
This isn’t restricted to FG, I’ve met councillors and tds from Labour and FF over the years. One TD from FF, Seamus Brennan, was an impossibly nice man who was very much let down by the antics of his party and he served his local constituency extremely well in his time. I couldn’t vote for him, however, as I’m not a fan of FF and certainly not a fan of those who lead the party. I’ve never met a bad person in Labour and have nothing bad to say about the people involved, they are most certainly in this for the right reasons. However i find some of their affiliation with the unions to be regressive and preventative, which is why I couldn’t vote for them myself.
I’ve met and interacted with people from SF and PBP, the former which was preachy, the latter was polite but both parties suffer from an extreme lack of policies. The only time I ever got a bad vibe off someone in a party was from a few FF people who shall remain nameless, but appeared to be in it to sort out their friends and family and give everyone else the finger.
So no, not “blindly” voting for anyone. I make my choices based on their past performance and anticipated future performance. My foray into politics didn’t come from anger and amount to me changing my name to appear more Irish and then spouting anti-governmental nonsense on here and politics.ie all day. I’m not accusing you personally of the former, to be clear, but I do get a laugh out of all the Sinn Fein supporters who post here and elsewhere with their name turned to Irish, yet aren’t addressed by it offline nor speak more than a few lines of the language that they learned by rote. It’s extremely pretentious.
With regards to your point, yes I remember the pre-election campaign. I’ve no doubt that everything was said in good faith and likewise I’ve no doubt that our representatives are disappointed that the plans they had couldn’t come to fruition because of the sheer bleakness of the state of the country.
What you seem to either not know, or perhaps be too young to know, is that FG stepped in and pulled the country out of the hole previously. It was tough, their measures lost them their place in government but they did what was needed.
Regardless, the point STILL stands that if elections are won and lost solely on the promises made by the parties involved in that election then SF would have won that general election due to the promises and fairy tales it was telling people at the time. The support FG had at the time remains to this very day, they are polling as strong as ever.
Destroying the country? As I hinted above, yes, if you only got into politics here at the last general election then of course that is what you would know. The reality is very different, however, so I’ll clarify it for you. Fianna Fail “destroyed” this country by deregulating the banking system and then issuing a blanket guarantee on those banks. Now, the night before Brian Lenihan issued said guarantee, he was told by the EU that “no bank would be let fail”. If anything has been made hugely apparent, it is that there is a massive knife held to our governments back and that no matter who is elected, that knife will be there until they get what they want. Lenihan gave them what they wanted and we are now continuing to do so, meaning that whatever is going on behind closed doors is obviously enough to put the government off messing about with those involved.
Do you want to know something about these quiet investors that we are dealing with? A lot of the same people, the ultra-wealthy investors, dealt with René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet in investing with Bernie Madoff. When asked what would happen if Madoff turned out to be a scam, Magon de la Villehuchet said that they would kill him. When Madoff was exposed as a scam, Magon de la Villehucet killed himself, presumably in anticipation of the backlash from said investors.
So, what is the point that I am trying to make? That the government is most certainly doing the best it can right now for the people here, but it limited in what it can do for some reasons that we aren’t being told about. There is something going on in the background that is being kept so quiet, but is so serious, that the Government feel it better to pay off the un-guaranteed bondholders and get on with things than not.
Enda has, as you may well have read, asked that we begin moving towards debt sharing in the Union. Merkel basically said “over my dead body”, but to say Enda is not doing is part is simply ridiculous. He has represented us extremely well so far, much better than anything we’ve had in a long, long time, and will certainly continue to do so.
@JohnBurke: Heh, yep, it seems any positivity towards anything, or even trying to deal in reality with the subjects posed, is completely bad form. It appears that the only accepted interaction is ranting about the government, regardless of what’s going on or how good it may be, ranting about the weather, ranting about Europe, etc.
With regards to the question about BIFFO, I don’t think most people on here remember BIFFO. I think most blew in at the last general election or the last dole cuts, to be quite frank.
@Shayno, no, choice does not mean not by force. It means they could have either stayed and worked here or moved abroad and enjoyed a better quality of life. I don’t blame them for it, but the reality of the situation is that most, if not all, of them will be back and we’ll be hearing of “yeah, when I was in Oz…” stories for years to come. To claim it’s long term emigration or emigration out of sheer necessity is utter nonsense though.
Winston, my views and your views are both true on why people are leaving, I can only give my view which you do not accept, don’t railroad your view as the only one that is true as it is quite ignorant.
You also lambasye people for ranting and pull out a super rant yourself which I do not blame you for as you yourself have said you know quite a lot of these politicians so it rises you to it. Its that same frustration that rises us about what we feel is happening or not happening these days so give up the hypocrisy.
Yes, calculators working.
It is €37,333.33. per job.
@Winston
I’m highly impressed by your knowledge of the past but I’m highly insulted by your misinterpretation of me and I strongly disagree with a lot of your opinions. I’m no teenager, I’m a thirty year old man, I’ve been called Toirealach since the day I was born and I’ve been a life long ff supporter, but I’ll never vote for them again for what they done to this country. I have no alliance to any party, although I did attend the ff ard fheis this year but I seriously didn’t like what I heard. My father has been canvassing for ff his whole life, my sister is married to the brother of a former minister and my boss is the brother of a former minister so it’s safe to say that I had a life long interest in politics.
I believe that this party politics type of democracy has failed and we need to move to a real democracy as it is defined in the dictionary.
“Democracy is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state, requiring that all citizens (meeting certain qualifications) have an equal opportunity to express their opinion.”
How does that sound Winston? Direct Democracy is one form of it form of it but you’d have to change it a bit to suite Ireland. Here’s a link so you can watch, just click on the highlighted line below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5W45Va0cPE
How would you change it to suite Ireland Winston?
Toirealach, I wasn’t targeting you specifically with regards to the name and “blowing in”, it’s just an observation on the trend here with young Sinn Fein supporters who’ve Irish-ized their names, including names that come from Britain, have Facebook profile photos of English soccer league stuff and then bang on all day about politics where it’s obvious their actual knowledge of politics extends as far back as the 2011 election and is limited even then.
Fair play on admitting to having voted for FF, it’s rare to see someone do that these days. I personally know people who 100% voted for FF up until at least 2011 who now swear they never even gave them a preference, get quite animated in insisting on this and now only insultingly refer to FF voters. Very hard to find an actual FF voter these days!
Anyway, with regards to your comment on party politics not working and the proposal of direct democracy. I’m absolutely not against the idea, that’s for sure. What you could do is have local elections on laws/issues a few times per year throughout the country, combine the votes and then act on the results. Hard and costly to administer though, I would imagine.
With the system with have at the moment, my biggest issue with it is the whip system. It infuriates me and completely destroys the power of representative democracy.
1: Scrap the whip system, create a government level whistleblowing entity and fine any party found to be pressuring TDs to vote on way or another
2: Make turning up to a vote mandatory for all members of the Dail
3: Make the votes anonymous
At the moment, if for example the constituents in Dun Laoghaire are against X and express as such to their local representatives, those representatives should be able to go into the Dail and vote against X. At the moment, however, those representatives have to tow the party line on the issue and face recrimination if they’re seen to be going against it. This doesn’t suffice in my books and although, as an FG voter, I generally agree with the direction they’re going in, I would like the option to rally locals to talk to our representatives and have something voted against if we felt it wasn’t in our interest.
Removing the whip system and allowing the TDs free, anonymous and mandatory voting would take a huge step in the right direction.
Miserable muppet
@toirleach why don’t you emigrate somewhere that doesn’t have the Internet so you can stop writing such crap here
@Graham
Nice to meet you too! What exact part of what I said did you not understand so I can explain it to you?
@Winston
I’m after replying to you but it hasn’t appeared. I wrote to Emer to see if they have it, if not I’ll try to write it again later when I have time. I really liked your 3 ideas btw.
Fantastic increase in exports to South America. Up 60%
More spin. Pharmaceuticals and software account for most of the exports. The export figures are distorted by invoicing involving the EMEA regions being booked as ‘earnings’ in Ireland. if everything stack up in reality as it does on paper, there wouldn’t be unemployment in Ireland.
Adam, I’m afraid you are wrong there – The IDA is responsable for foreign direct investment, and attracting the big pharma companies etc. Their figures are not included in this graph. Enterprise Ireland on the other hand deals only with indigenous Irish owned companies with headquarters in Ireland. The figures above are for 100% Irish companies which is a fantastic achievement.
As someone who owned my own company and paid taxes for over 4years, I had to shut it due to lack of business. I am now without job, and without any dole money as the government doesn’t support those who create their own businesses. I moved in with my partner and am doing intern work for a company which pays a fraction of dole money, just to keep me in the 9-5 mode, networking and prevent me from depression of siting at home alone. nBut this news of exports shows potential. The better Ireland is seen o outside countries and companies, the more chance we have of foreign investment, Ida/connect Ireland bringing companies to Ireland. It’s about believing in our country and selling it abroad to bring more companies in and thus increase prospective jobs. We are a fantastic country, we are just running ourselves into the ground with negativity instead of working together for our future.
winston is to funny, his fg till death do they part, so was his daddy and grand daddy, that is the problem in this country, yes i changed my vote this time round and voted fg, but why they are no better than ff, have gone back on all they said they would do, austerity running wild, do we need this, and not one account from the bankers, thats who should be on the chopping block, we should have followed suit with other countrys that went bankrupt, they are all back in the market and debt free, we are not back in market and wont with the way the euro is going all over europe, and when we get back we will still be in debt and our sovereignty gone, they sold more than money on this one, and of course we have more population in this country as poland pays crap pay and benefits, and we have it all, rent allowance, childrens allowance, and a government who are only leeches upon us, they are draining us dryer than dry,, enterprise ireland are paid by government also, we need business people to run this country , not school teachers and people who are standing in their daddys shoes and following suit, its crazy, its not a government at all, just a who is who and who their families are, that we need to get rid of,
Jackie, I’ll be honest and say I only got as far as the “so was his daddy and grand daddy” part of your comment because it then descends into a wall of text that is separated only with commas, no full stops and certainly no paragraphs that I can’t bring myself to work through.
My father is a labour voter and I’ve no idea what my grand father was. I got involved in politics on my own accord.
Yes, Winston said people on here expressing their views that he doesn’t like are “bitter spiteful little people” the key word here is “little” which would indicate he is superior only in his own view. Being well heeled does not make you superior Winston, just sheltered from the realities that most people are facing and in that regard you would be in good company with the political elite.
No, Shayno, being “well heeled” does not make me superior.
What does, however, is not spending my entire day filling data bytes with angry anti-government rants on subjects I’ve little to no understanding of on Irish internet community sites, pointing the finger at everyone else but myself for the situation I’ve found myself in. It’s easier to stay logged on, giving out about how X screwed you over or Y caused this to happen you, instead of getting up and doing something with your day.
The sheer bitterness and resentment on display from people who are entirely in control of their own fate is really incredible and the fact that they’re happy to sit here all day, every day, ranting and ranting instead of doing something productive is how they got termed the “bitter, spiteful little people”.
Sheltered from realities? I don’t think so, I interact with a very broad range of people from all backgrounds so I’m certainly not “sheltered”. Realities most people are facing? Cop yourself on. 85.3% of the country is employed, the forecast for consumer spending is that it will contract a mere 1.7% in 2012, retail sales decreased a mere 1.5% year on year and education is still highly accessible when compared to other first world countries to our left and right.
It’s not “most” people who are facing (implied to be negative)”realities” of life. This attitude needs to drop off the place of the f**king planet, success in this country is now becoming stigmatized by a bunch of loud mouthed lay-abouts who have the gall to tell hard working people how “lucky” they are to have a job at the moment or worse, implying that they only have said success due to their connections.
Your attitude and ethic towards life, those around you and the things you take pride in, such as the work you do, judge your worth as a person, not whose womb you came from and in that regard yes, I am very much superior to some lay about who’s claiming the dole, not applying for jobs because he believes them to be beneath him or won’t work for an entry level salary and is going online and blaming everyone else for the position he’s in. I am immeasurably superior to such a person.
I’m not implying that person is you by the way, but it’s certainly characteristic of a lot of the ranters and ravers on this site.
Well heeled my f**king arse.
I’d love to feel positive about his but I can’t. I know more people out of work than ever before. So to me and those i know this news not relevant, or it’s just spin, I’m not sure. Rich getting richer poor getting poorer still seems to be the case.
and thats the truth Aiden, so sad what our little country has come to,
just wondering is enterprise ireland funded by the government, if it is this would make sense, as unemployment in kerry is still going down daily, around 80 jobs per week, i know they go on dublins numbers but there are a few more counties surrounding it, that need help , i am delighted our exports are so high but are they numbering in humans to those numbers as that is our biggest export, my son coming home for 2 weeks and my daughter leaving with him,, i feel half these reports are bogus and try to cover up all the wrong, they are picking on wallace the long haired td, nothing said about the 200 jobs he created, all the taxes over the years over 2 million he paid for business, think he like a lot of other companys are in trouble ,, but where are the bankers, they should be in court first,, they cost us billions and not even a slap on the back of the hand, they are making a big sample out of one business man gone into trouble with taxes there are thousands and they shut them down instead of trying to work with them and keep jobs,,, but once again enda or any of our fg or ff tds have ever employed anyone, they were always paid by government as teachers, lawyers, never had to hire or pay taxes for a company so what do they know,
Love to see the figures’
That’s what the link to the report is for
What about the export of Human beings. Thats up as well.
Richard, the last census showed we’ve more people in the country than ever and this is despite the fact that a lot of our imported work force have upped sticks and left for home when things took a turn.
Lets not be dramatic for the sake of being dramatic.
Harry, the synopsis of the report is a bit confused. The export numbers quoted are only for Enterprise Ireland supported businesses. The actual cost per new job created is a little over €12,000 not much more than the cost per job 15 years ago. nHowever what the Journal failed to report was that EI supported businesses also lost about 9000 jobs so the net gain in the period was just 6, yes 6 extra jobs.n
Stop digging winston
Kind of makes sense. Ireland is exporting it’s young and skilled umemployed thus the economy is stabilizing.
pharmaceuticals are going public in next couple of years, thats irelands jobs gone on that line also, and we do alot oa pharmaceuticals in this country, as i say we have not started austerity yet, and winston, yes i lost my job over a year ago, i applied to mcdonalds and they hired unemployed chefs, thats me out , i do volunteer work with the elderly to help pass my days, and to see the cuts they are getting is unreal, they have cut pads, which are like diapers, so there beds are wet,, which will lead to water charges, taking away there home helps time, they may have had an hour now its down to 15 minutes, try and cook and feed someone in 15 minutes and make a cup of tea, i know you live high on the hog and have no complaints, but go down to your local services, community centers, its not all bright, its hard to stay up and happy when you see such things around you, yes i call to our seniors will sit and have a cup of tea, they are scared to complain to their local nurses as fear of more cuts, its not a good country if your old and sick and depending on government to help, i know there has to be cut backs, but start somewhere reasonable, as rent allowance, thats the biggest scam yet, its just giving the home owners more money to pay their mortgage and if they can afford 4 or 5 houses to rent out, let the people rent and pay out of their dole, as mortgagers are doing, a mortgage , house insurance and mortgage insurance coming out of 200 euro, elec, food heat, its not possible but we do it, why cant renters, yes they have familys, but so do mortgagers, its a sin to see this going on, just throwing money away, and 5 million for a college to listen to internet, jahad or something, england and america are doing it for years, could that 5 million not go back to our seniors who need help,, yes we sit we complain, but we also sit and listen to complaints that would make the hair stand on the back of your neck, i have gone to svp to get help for some people, and thats just for basic everyday needs,
What does Ireland export?
Pharmaceuticals, technology, food to name but a few.
have your say