Crowe Joins TUI Picket at Tallaght Institute of Technology

Speaking on the picket line in solidarity of the TUI strike outside
Tallaght Institute of Technology  Dublin South West representative
Seán Crowe TD said that the strike would help educate the general
population on the serious implications of the proposed merger with IT
Blanchardstown and the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Crowe called for any incoming government to address the concerns
raised by teachers and lecturers about the implications of the process
on jobs, classes and the identity of smaller Institutes being
subsumed.

Seán Crowe TD said;

“This week I joined over 4,000 TUI lecturers and researchers who took
part in the one day stoppage that was supported by the Union of
Students in Ireland.

“Institute of Technology sector funding has been cut by 35% since
2008 with staff numbers decreasing 10% as student numbers rose by a
whopping 21,000.

“The service that is being provided to students has inevitably
deteriorated, is under further threat because staffing is inadequate
and because the funding is not just up to scratch.

“The outgoing Minister for Education had tried to railroad through
complex legislation to establish technological universities but this
is more about rationalisation and cutbacks than it is about any
concept of providing an enlightened standard of education for students
and fails to address a wide range of staff concerns.”

“Staff in precarious employment need to have their concerns addressed
and students deserve to be taught in lecture halls that are not
overcrowded by staff some of whom who are clearly overworked.

“If the technological universities project is to succeed it has to be
resourced. The identity of smaller Institutes cannot also just be
subsumed losing its unique local identity and openness to staff,
students and local population.” ENDS