‘Slam the Fees’ was the message on the lips of over 200 AIT students this week as they took to the streets of Dublin to join in a national protest march.
Four bus loads of students travelled from Athlone Institute of Technology to join over 15,000 students from across the country to demonstrate their anger at proposals to reintroduce third level tuition fees.
The AIT contingent sported t-shirts displaying the simple message ‘Fight the Fees’, carried placards, and joined in the mass chant of ‘No cutbacks, no fees, no Fianna Fail TDs’.
Deputy president of AIT Students’ Union, Emma Kilbride, said the protest was chance to make the feelings of students regarding the possible reintroduction of fees very clear.
“A decision is to be made in April and we wanted to get in ahead of this and make our feelings known. Students from every college were out on the streets and it was a great experience to meet up with students and students’ unions from other colleges. The crowd that travelled up from AIT were a credit to us,” she told the Advertiser.
She added that AIT students had received a lot of support from local councillors in their fight to ban fees.
Wednesday’s protest took students from Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House, where representatives of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI ) were joined by opposition politicians in addressing the large gathering.
USI president Shane Kelly said that it was more important than ever that the Government increase its investment in education, and that the reintroduction of fees would put barriers in the way of those who wished to further their education.
