FG are indeed little fascists – getting bigger.

Protest by occupation isn’t exactly extremist in fairness

And their demands aren’t too right wing either now

What a stupid comment.

I think Martin trawls (not trolls!) through these comments dropping little vignettes of irony and acerbic humour Reada!

I agree Martin. Fine Gael are fascists with a shameful past.

@Brendan Gallagher, the may or may not, oddly enough quite a lot of them were students also

News just in, many members of ruling political party have third level educations, shock !!!

And this makes them fascist how?

From your comments I genuinely don’t believe you’re fully aware of the national socialism which fascism represents, whatsmore you’re liberal use of the slur also betrays a lack of the sense of gravity which such an insult carries

“News just in, many members of ruling political party have third level educations, ”

“Fine Gael are fascists with a shameful past.”

shock horror indeed

Does the office not have a jacks?

Does the office not have a jacks?

They’re not toilet trained

Martin! These people are ecological the brought their own chemical loo!

Best of luck lads.

Any of the occupiers have party political affiliations?

Free Education for Everyone. Nothing less.

Free for everyone, an amazing concept. can we assume some other life form is going to pay for it?

Believe it or not The people of Ireland democratically voted in this lot, (myself not included BTW). however as a democrat I accept the decision of the people. As opposed to a handful of miscreants using bullyboy tactics akin to fascists and zeolats all over

Free education – education system free from user charges, paid for through general taxation . It’s not really a difficult concept to understand.

William, serious question: At which point do you think free education should stop? PhD is technically another level of education, should the state pay for those fees as well? Would free fees for those who cannot afford it and a sliding scale up to full fees for those from affluent upbringings not be fairer and economically, make more sense? It would be an actual case of redistribution of wealth no?

What ever decision the government takes re: fees, it is essential that it commits to maintaining it current funding levels irrespective. Having been through one Irish University and two UK unis as well as working for a time in a third, it’s all too apparent how far behind Irish Uni’s are in terms of facilities, attracting world leading academics and attracting foreign students.

Education is a right that should be afforded to everyone regardless of economic position.
The only barriers to education should be ability and demonstrated dedication to the course you want to pursue.
Education benefits all of society and should be absolutely encouraged.
And yes, further than having PhD’s provided for free I believe that students studying for PhD’s should be paid for the hard work they do furthering their field.
To answer your question, I believe that free education should stop when the ability or dedication of the applicant wanes.
Equal opportunities to education unhindered by economic positioning is nothing but beneficial to all of society as it enables for social mobility and the most efficient development of new ideas, technologies, business and empowers the people who are most suited to the benefits education gives them.

Knowledge is free. No man hs the right to hold back the development of the human race as a species by conserving and marketing knowledge that should be in the public domain and freely accessible to all who wish to access it.

Education is a right that should be afforded to everyone regardless of economic position

spot on, it’s a right, not an entitlement, just like food clothing etc,

I dont think anybody is suggesting banning 3rd level education , now that would be a diminuation of a”RIGHT”

William, serious question: At which point do you think free education should stop

When William is finished freeloading

Martin, I am studying my second degree, the first I financed myself and have repaid and the one I’m finishing next year is paid through BTEA. I am also on the student union which is an unpaid voluntary position that I put a very large amount of time and work into and have achieved a lot since I started back in July.
My final year project I am currently working on in regenerative medicine is a project that is literally worth millions to the university and to the tax payer in this country and is likely to be published. The work I do at college currently by far outweighs by several times the cost incurred by the tax payer that keeps me from drawing the dole.
I campaign for free education because I believe that young people today should have the same opportunities that I had. If fees were brought in next week it wouldn’t affect me personally in the slightest as I have already benefited from 5 years of undergraduate education. Children and young people alive today should be able to do this also.
I would like for you to please clarify why this makes me a freeloader.

Further more, please tell me what you have done to promote a more equal and fair society recently.

god on ya,,, i hope you reap the rewards of it all, and appreciate what other peoples tax helped you achieve.

IDEA: how about a tax on graduates in employment , ringfenced to help defray the costs of future graduates, seeing as one of the points of it all is to earn more money to pay more tax to help society.

about 2 hours ago i filled my humble jalopy with fuel which cost 60 euro, half of which went towards making society fair, EG, paying your tutors and berties pension etc etc,

And other than playing stormtrooper what has your contribution been

Let’s hope so

they dont know that, mummy pays it with her Visa card

wish them the best of luck myself, The coffers are bare though.

hunger strike, now theres an idea lads,

Well 8 less anyway. Wish the occupation was in Maynooth. I’d bring them down some sandwiches. Don’t care about how much fees should be – just thrilled to see someone doing something.

And addressing it to FG. Sick of Labour being the cannon fodder.

Relax there David, your giving me.ideas!!!

I smell a Troll.

@Blanaid Aughney, you probably should away from the radiator

A PR Stunt? All i can do is laugh at you.every student in Maynooth knows how hard Rob and the rest of the lads have worked, not only this year but last year to stop the government bringing in higher fees. Maynooth SU are doing a brilliant job supporting the students in the college and they wont give up with out a fight. Fair play to them.

Fully agree, defintely a PR stunt, where were all these sit in protests last year? I got involved with SU protests and it was infested with Fianna Fail hacks, the horse has bolted lads and we need money from somewhere because the standard of the college system right throughout Ireland is seriously declining.

so would any of this crowd

Martin! Give it a rest. You’ll have every TD’s office in the country wrecked!

Next thing we’ll have TDs occupying the SU offices

Thought he was more of an M&S type of blueshirt!!!

Was he getting supplies for the students?
No such thing as bad press. Super exposure for him. Pity.

good, hopefully you gob shi’ites wont too much of their time

What a waste of Garda time, go home

Martin, I don’t know why so your comments are getting so many dislikes? Have people list their senses. Do we have to Occupy premises now to make our point? Some protestors seem to think that their righteousness outweighs the principles of law.

@ BJ, i’d be more concerned with the green thumbs, generally when that many people agree with anything the are either starting a politcal party or a religion

And thanks for the irresistible fascist invitation at the top.

He’s funny tho.

@Jayniemac, no problem jaynie it’s all paret of the service here. and it’s free. You put forward a very compelling arguement also

Fight back?!? We only recently had an election! If people wanted a vastly different change in direction they’d have voted for it… But they didn’t… We have what we voted for…

People did not vote for this, they voted for change, to make things better. Instead they got a bigger mess and a government with no backbone to protect its people. The very people who voted them in. Its a real case of “thanks for the vote now screw you” . I’m pretty sure that people would not have put them in power had they known what they where going to do. So my point is. if your vote fails, take it to the streets.

…because the public sector worker has not felt the pain yet. Q:why do you think the unions are soooo quite?..A: because they know how good their members have it under the CPA and are keeping extremely silent for fear of boat rocking!!

The public service haven’t felt the effects yet? So net losses to earnings of between 15-20%, longer working hours with less resources equals not feeling the effects yet? In education alone there have been 2,500 job losses as a result of raising the pupil:teacher ratio since Jan. 09 with another on the way in the next budgetThis is coupled with new entants starting on 17% less than those who started before Jan.11 and with worse a worse pension. And before you become predictable and mention what’s happening in the private sector, there’s no need. Public and private alike are getting royally screwed by this administration and their predecesors.

Im a student i dont “freeload” I work myself to the bone to pay back my CU loan that i took out for college. My college hours are 9-5 mon-fri and my job is sat-sun! My father has worked all his life to support his family and he’s a public servant with pay cut after pay cut. He doesnt complain he just gets on with it. I never ever ever asked my mother for her visa to pay my fees and I really think @Martin’s comments are distasteful and frankly theres no need for sarcastic snide remarks. Student life is most certainly not all drink and partying im not complaining about it at all I love it but please dont paint us all with the one brush!!

You bear an uncanny resemblance to Yvonne Ni Sluaghaidh

Good man RP. I’ll make a socialist out of you yet

Is he a farmer or landowner, or both, or neither?

how about occuping the Archbishops palace and demanding an apology for the cover up by the Catholic hierarchy of child and adult abuse

Education is a right and should not based on class and privilege of parents status. If we can’t invest as much as possible in our children’s education there is little hope of dreaming of a better lifestyle for them.

That being said, as a graduate who is on a gap year in Australia, I am not entirely against low fees. Fees fund the universities and create a financial incentive for the student to try harder.

But I am very against the introduction of fees in this context. They are not increasing the fees because it makes sense, they are doing so to pay off the mistakes of bankers and investors. No student, or anyone for That matter,should pay for this. Our students are the ones who will get us out of this mess!

I agree that education is a right and should not be based on class or privilege. Being in Australia you’d be aware of the HECS system where third level education is available to all but must be paid for by a levy when you graduate and start earning the big dollars, so what’s wrong with that ?

The problem there is, firstly there are jobs available but, it’s way too stressful and sudden cultural change to go through college with the burden of leaving it with a large financial deficit and no security or guarantee of a job afterward.
I’ve gone through college on a scholarship scheme whereby I went to a company abroad to sponsor me to do my course, they paid expenses including fees, course costs & a monthly bursary & in return I can sign a contract with them afterward for a job or go to a similar company in the industry. This I believe is the way forward in our education, make the likes of arts degrees for post grads who want to & can afford to pay for it in their own time later on & we will get this country back on track much quicker

Food a nd clothing are rights also, do you propose that we should all get them for free?

You seem to get Rights and entitlements mixed up, it’s all a legacy of the tiger

Get real, they’ll be given cautions at max. Uncle Sam won’t ever know a thing about it.

And anyway, fair play to them for taking the risk!

They will only get a caution. That true.. But wrong on the visa part. US embassy enquire if applicant has ever been arrested before even if never convicted. Know the facts before you encourage well meaning kids to screw up their future before it’s even started. Protest by all means, yes, but breaking the law is foolish. That’s advise not condemnation.

they have support, but the question is, how much

can they bring their Macbooks? :-P

Yes, yes they do. Some of them are members of the three main parties, and some are members of none. Does that answer your question sufficiently, or would you perhaps like to add on a few more question marks and see if you get a better response?

You seem very irate about the occupiers. Have you nothing better to be doing with your time than waging a one man war against them in the comments section?

thank you for your prompt reply. which parties do they support and why dont the non affiliated ones get involved and get their views and grievances dealt with through the democratic system, ???????????????????????????

Irate not a bit, i’ve been through a lot. more amused by the innocence of it all really.
As for something better to be doing, Touche

How come your not occupying Labour party offices?

seriously martin what is wrong with you! your comments are horrible so you’ve been through a few things havent we all. At least these students are doing something it might not work but fair play to them!

Not a thing wrong Yvonne, thanks for asking. I gather you disagree with some my comments. thankfuly mostly what i’ve been through has been surmountable. From your resume above , I think you and your family are exactly what this country needs more of, people who pay their way and more, to subsidise others less fortunate and also some a lot more fortunate but lazy or greedy who expect everything to be handed to them for free, but generally free means somebody else pays. I would reckon that you dont have the time to go out performing political stunts on behalf of budding politicos, who are only too willing to tar all students as being of a like mind to themselves.
The very best of luck in your endevours.