Ryan Carey, a presidential candidate for Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), received a minor strike from the Electoral Commission (EC) for breaking a new rule on mandatory lunch breaks.
A new rule was implemented this year whereby candidates could move their 1pm-2pm mandatory lunch break to another time to facilitate off-campus campaigning, but campaigns must then take a two-hour break rather than one on campus.
Carey told Trinity News that he “didn’t understand that if I still took that break and took all my campaigners off 12pm-1pm, I would still have to take them off from 1pm-2pm as well”.
The presidential candidate said that the new rule was in the schedule given to candidates but, “it wasn’t made very clear at the candidate briefing”. He said that “somebody pointed it out to my campaign manager at about 20 past the hour”.
“It’s obviously completely my fault, I didn’t understand,” he said, adding: “It’s not a big deal, I’m not really that worried about it.”
Carey will be barred from in-person campaigning between 10am and 11am tomorrow. If a candidate receives more than three minor strikes, they will be struck off the ballot.
Of the three candidates running for TCDSU president, Carey has had the most involvement in the students’ union. He is the current Gender Equality Officer and is undertaking his second term as Histories and Humanities Convenor and held the position of AHSS Faculty Convenor from January to July 2019.
“I am passionate about local issues” was Ryan Carey’s introduction to his campaign at Monday’s Dining Hall hustings, promising union campaigns that focus on the issues that affect students. His campaigns, he said, will be “rooted in local issues and things that affect students in college”. He has spoken about fees, accessibility, the Irish language, trans healthcare and PrEP as important student issues.
At tonight’s Media hustings, Carey rated his knowledge of funding decisions at a seven and claimed he would be proactive about fees, quality of funding and education. He rated his knowledge of College structures as an eight, and drew attention to his experience in University Council and the administration committee for the school of histories and humanities, citing his experiences of sending aggressive emails to staff and having to sit next to them the same day in a meeting.
