Lobby your local TD to support students.
At 11.11am On October 13th 2022, tens of thousands of students walked out of their lectures.
Now, we need to remind TDs why we walked out of lectures, and for them to support the USI Cost of College Campaign.
Who is my local TD?
If you go here, this will take you to a list that will tell you who your local TD is, if they’ve confirmed they’re attending the lobby day and their contact details.
We will be contacting TDs to support the Cost of College campaign and to see change in higher education funding.
What are the demands of the campaign?
Accommodation Demands
Protect Renters
- Legislation to protect students in digs-style accommodation
- Continuing the eviction ban for students
- Legislative change to allow the RTB to intervene in disputes relating to security deposits
Reduce Rents
- Legislation to enact an immediate rental cap
- Establishing freezes on utility bills separate from rents
- Allowing the RTB to intervene in relation to security deposits
Subsidisation of affordable PBSA from public funds
- Building on public lands new and refurbished PBSA
- Specifically ensuring approved PBSA is affordable in conditions
- Re-establishing the interdepartmental group on student accommodation
Cost of College Demands
Abolishment of the Student Contribution Charge
- Abolition of the fee within the Lifetime of this Government
- Transparency on how non-EU and postgraduate fees are set
- Removing hidden course costs in materials and subsidies
Funding for the Higher Education Sector
- Funding to increase SUSI grant levels to match the cost of living
- Increasing SUSI rates for all brackets to a living subsidy
- Increased funding to the sector to reduce the staff student ratio to the European average of 15:1
Minimum wage to match living wage
- The normalisation of wages for workers under 20 years old
- A PhD stipend of €28,000 following the PhD review
- A living wage based on the cost of living, not the median income
I’m a TD who wants to sign the pledge!
Please email president@usi.ie or campaigns@usi.ie if you wish
to confirm your support of the Cost of College campaign!
Resources
In these, we ask that you could include the demands of the walkout, but also crucially ask them to support the USI Cost of College campaign. The options available are email, calling and writing, but if you have any other questions or feedback, please email campaigns@usi.ie.
Emailing your TD
A template to email your TD can be found below. It is suggested that you make changes to this template for personalisation, as it is likely that template emails can easily go into their spam folder.
Calling your TD
A phone script is available on how to contact your TD. This is the most effective way to get in touch with someone from their office, but might be the most frustrating too depending on their response!
Writing to your TD
Using similar text to the email, writing to your TD can be done with just a bit more time. Your SU may also have Cost of College postcards, which if not can be requested as such and ordered from USI.
While this may be a slower action, this ensures a more likely response. Ensure to place a return address for responses, such as your home address or your SU’s address.
For students living in Northern Ireland – NUS-USI are running their #CostOfSurvival campaign, which will highlight to MPs their calls for students. This includes a cost of living payment for students, a rent freeze, and free public transport for students. More information on their campaign can be found here.
The objective of this campaign is to encourage your support of the Cost of College campaign. Following the walkout’s success, we encourage you to support our aims of tackling the student accommodation crisis, the cost of living for students and truly publicly funded Higher Education.
The full demands can be found under the tab “Our Demands”. If you wish to support the campaign, or want clarity on our asks, please email campaigns@usi.ie.
TDs will be given two weeks to respond to this. If a response has not been given by then, or you choose not to support the campaign, this will be noted as per the list below to show students who supports the Cost of College campaign, and who does not.
Sign the pledge to vote against those stopping change!
Want to show your support for the Cost of College campaign, and receive updates about future USI actions? Make sure to sign the petition, and ensure to click to approve email updates!