Jack Leahy

Deputy News Editor

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A Union of Students in Ireland occupation of the Department of Social Protection has ended after two hours of negotiations between Gardaí and four USI representatives who had occupied a room in the building with food supplies for two weeks. The protestors were then taken to Store Street Garda station and a file is now being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

An earlier attempt at occupying the Department of Jobs on Kildare Street ended after Gardaí threatened to use pepper spray on the occupying group. The protest then continued with a similar demonstration at the Department of Social Protection after a locked door prevented the occupation of Labour HQ, the original target of the occupation. Gardaí attempted to break into the office, with three officers wearing stab vests and equipped with a ramming instrument entering the building. The attempts were unsuccessful and negotiations began between the occupiers and Gardaí.

Earlier, Gardaí arrived at the Department of Jobs shortly before 16:40 to inform USI officers that pepper spray would be utilised should the occupation continue, at which point the then group of ten decided to leave the building. An attempted lock-in was also halted after Gardaí warned the group against locking members of department staff into the building. The four protesters who saw out the entire protest are USI President Gary Redmond, University College Cork SU President Ben Honan, IT Carlow’s George Beattie, and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology president Joe O’Connor.

At 15:42 on Tuesday, Redmond sent an email to all sabbatical officers of USI-affiliated colleges saying that ‘a group of over 10 sabbats have locked themselves into an office in the Dept. of Jobs and will not leave until Eamonn Gilmore clarifies the Labour position on fees and grants or they are physically removed’. Redmond reiterated this in a phone call with this reporter at 17:30, despite the Gardaí presence audible in the background. Trinity College Dublin Students Union president Ryan Bartlett was not one of those involved.

In the email sent from his Blackberry while the occupation was already underway, Redmond appealed for support in the form of banner-holding outside of the departmental building. In recent weeks, USI have led the national ‘Stop Fees, Save the Grant’ campaign, meeting with government TDs, taking a full-page advertisement in national newspapers branding the government ‘liars’, holding a mock funeral for third-level education and organising a 20,000-strong protest march in Dublin on November 16th.

More to follow