Student Unions ratch up pressure on "half baked" Minister

Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 09:16 AM

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The students are revolting again.

And while that may not be news to anyone, their latest spate of irateness may.

An unusually strongly-worded press release from the University College Cork (UCC) Student Union called Ireland's Minister for Trade, Employment and - ironically - Innovation "half baked" and "lackluster" in his approach to stemming the rising tide of graduate unemployment.

Daithi Linnane, the Union's Deputy President, repeated a call first made by the national equivalent of the UCCSU to "get real" on the issue.

The press releases capture acurately a building frustration among Ireland's youth at the fact that despite holding enviable academic qualifications like Masters and PhDs they're unable to hold down or even get a job position - even at the local grocery store. Openings at petrols stations are regularly inundated with hundreds of resumes - that's how bad it's gotten.

A recent protest in Dublin was directed against the exact same phenomenon. Students chose to protest outside the famine ship memorial, the message being that the Airbus 330 has replaced the old bows and oars of the infamous famine ships which were the visible symbols of the last wave of forced emigration; the e-ticket and Shannon Airport being the iconic images of this one.

As a student this latest news-piece has a more visceral effect than most.

Unlike, say, a piece about the American recession, which I may read with distant and detached empathy, there's something very personal about the graduate unemployment dilema.

The reason, of course, is that in a little under a year I'll be one of those graduates. Holding a BCL law degree from UCC I too may be joining the ranks of the SU and discommoded students protesting against a bleak future - and heading into an unknown one.

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plasticpaddy | Sep 10, 2010, 05:28 PM EDT

Monsoonman, do you really think Fianna Fail are socialist, if you do I would urge you to read the statements of their ministers of finance over the past two decades, who were entirely neo-liberal centre-right politicians.

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Monsoonman | Sep 03, 2010, 09:35 AM EDT

The students need to be picketing the leaders of the country who with their socialist agenda have been ruining the capitalist system and hurting the private enterprise which is what pays for everything. They have wounded severely the golden goose.

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plasticpaddy | Sep 02, 2010, 02:15 PM EDT

Monsoonman look into the availability of jobs in the sectors you speak of, almost entirely dependent of FDI investment which is non-existent. Basically the jobs you speak of don't exist. also theses areas are where the Irish colleges have excelled the most, not in the liberal arts.

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Monsoonman | Sep 01, 2010, 10:06 AM EDT

I'll bet if those degrees were in computer science, engineering, bio engineering, mathematics, medical, or a few other areas, these graduates would find ready employment. If you are going to get a degree in the liberal arts and you are looking for a steady job it's going to be tough.

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kerryman201 | Sep 01, 2010, 02:57 AM EDT

danny - there's a fine difference between the unions talking and doing - no matter whether it's in student or national politics. all the same!

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