Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), Students4Change (S4C), and Trinity People Before Profit (PBP TCD) protested today outside of a diversity and inclusion event hosted by Trinity School of Law.
The diversity and inclusion conference was held in partnership with law firm Matheson which the Students’ Union today called “complicit Ireland’s housing crisis”. The Union accused the firm of “defending vulture funds”.
The students stood outside the exam hall where the event was being held in protest of College’s links with the firm.
In a statement to Trinity News today TCDSU President László Molnárfi said: “The effects of the housing crisis are felt by students and staff to this date. Many people lost their homes to vulture funds, and were forced to pay rents to them, in some cases leading to foreclosures and evictions.”
“Matheson has helped vulture funds avoid taxes in Ireland and so is complicit in the system”, he added.
S4C Chair Ella Mac Lennan called Trinity’s partnership with Matheson “disgusting” and criticised the event’s organisers for “hiding behind the guise of ‘diversity and inclusion’”.
“Matheson remain as one of the biggest advisors to vulture funds, aiding them in their exploitation of vulnerable individuals and stopping at nothing to meet their needs and maximise their profits, even going as far as exploiting children’s charities”, she said.
TCD PBP Secretary Lean Tolentino said: “In today’s Ireland, students couch-surf, they live in extremely crowded and inhumane conditions, they commute long hours.”
“A large part of this blame is to be pinned on the very vulture funds that Matheson has helped save millions of euros for in the past.”
