Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) are to attend the housing protest outside of Dáil Eireann.
TCDSU will attend the protest organised by the National Homeless and Housing Committee tomorrow along with several other bodies, including the Community Action and Tenants Union (CATU).
Party People Before Profit are also supporting the rally which is due to kick off at 5:30pm.
In a press release this evening, TCDSU explained that “year on year students scramble to source accommodation, only to settle for crumbs”.
“With rents in Dublin averaging more than €1,000, the shortage and therefore, cost of student accommodation has become a very real barrier to higher education.”
The union highlighted that “77% of students [are] in financial hardship” and students are “paying the highest fees in the EU, topped with the financial strain of the pandemic and more than half living outside Leinster and are forced to pay the 5th highest rent in Europe”.
“It is brutally clear that the Government needs to step up now”, the statement continued.
TCDSU plans to march to the Dáil “to join the National Homeless and Housing Coalition to welcome our Government back from their summer holidays and remind them that the threats of the housing crisis for students haven’t gone anywhere”.
They are asking students to “show up and speak up to let them know that we haven’t gone anywhere either, and won’t stop until students can access secure, affordable or public accommodation”.
TCDSU plans to make posters outside of House 6 from 4pm tomorrow and depart campus at 5pm.
They are urging attendees to wear a mask and observe social distancing.
