The Union of Students of Ireland holds fast to the notion that "apathetic" is an unfair and untrue label to affix to the student population. Housing, the grant and access to education are the issues that interest students, they say. But will students get out and vote in the upcoming general election and will their votes make a difference? Olivia Kelly gauges the mood amongst the State's students.

Materialistic, individualistic and self-serving - the student movement is well used to hearing these accusations levelled at its members. Drunken revellers on the streets of our towns and cities, at all hours - it's the students. Spoilt lay-abouts looking for handouts - students. Country going to rack and ruin? It's probably the students again.

The student leaders take it on the chin. Students are "soft targets" for this type of abuse, they say, and people will believe what they want to. So call them what you like - sticks and stones and all that - but call them apathetic and fear their wrath.

With the general election looming, the big bugbear of the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) is the notion that students don't care. Politicians need not bother canvassing the student vote because students don't vote. They're not interested, they're apathetic, apolitical. This is all hotly denied by the USI leadership.

"Students are itching to exercise their democratic right," says Colm Jordon, incoming USI president and current education officer. Huge numbers of young people got involved in the anti-Sellafield postcard campaign, he says, and 20,000 students took to the streets last year in protest at Government inaction on student problems. "These people could hardly be described as apathetic."

USI may be able to mobilise large student groups, but how good are students at exercising their franchise independently? In a recent survey by the union, just 51 per cent of students said they used their vote. Some 9 per cent of students said they didn't vote because they didn't know how and 22 per cent said they hadn't been registered to vote. Most tellingly, 65 per cent of respondents didn't think they had any influence over decisions taken by the Government.

This time, according to USI, it will be different. In this election, students are going to vote in unprecedented numbers. Writing in EL earlier this year, outgoing USI president Richard Hammond said: "By the time the next general election arrives, few will dare to brand the State's 120,000 full-time students as apathetic."

The union has been running a voter-education and registration campaign since the beginning of the academic year. It has also campaigned for the extension of polling hours to allow those living outside their constituencies to travel home to vote. The campaign received a major boost recently when the Taoiseach announced the general election will take place on a Friday (May 17th) and the polls would stay open for 15 hours, making it the longest polling day in the history of the State.

However, Jordan says USI will continue to campaign for even greater extension to the polling period to reduce the inconvenience to students living away from their constituency. "There's a difference between doable and accessible. Our call is for weekend voting and for the polls to be open for two days."

Jordan believes that politicians realise the student vote will be a powerful force this time round.

"Politicians are increasingly concerned with the student vote. A lot of first-time candidates will be looking for people to give them their number one throughout their lives."

The drive to secure students' votes is manifest in the amount of money and time politicians are spending on attracting students. Campaign posters are appearing on campus and a recent politicians-versus-students debate in Tralee IT attracted candidates from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin and an independent.

Politicians still need to ensure that it's as easy as possible for everyone to vote, but, Jordan says, the success of the USI campaign to date should ensure a high student turn-out. "I'm very confident that students will use their vote more than any sector of society in this election."

The USI does seem to have done its homework on this one, with its industrious campaigns and its surveys. However, its own survey found that two-thirds of students didn't think they had an influence on the Government, so just how motivated could they be to vote?

This finding could be read in two ways; either that students believe their vote, in itself, doesn't count or they don't believe student issues matter to the Government.

Jordon identifies three biggest student issues as housing, the grant and access to education, which he points out is also a financial issue: "You're 10 times less likely to go to college if you're from Ballymun then if you're from Foxrock." Heading into the general election, these are the the issues students want to see addressed, says USI.

I spoke to some students in UCD who do intend to vote this May; for some the urge to exercise their franchise is in their blood, others are first-time voters. Will they vote for those candidates they think will do right by students?

"I'm not really into student politics. I don't have much time in that I'd be studying for exams, but I don't think it would interest me much anyway," says economics student Fearghal King. "I used to commute for three years, so accommodation never affected me, and I never got a grant, so anything USI would have lobbied for didn't really affect me."

King is thinking of voting for the first time. The issue that concerns him most? "Health. The health system in Ireland is all over the place, that would be number one."

Luke Redmond from Dundalk, Co Louth, also takes a global view. "I would interested in issues that relate to the well-being of Ireland in general. The serious state of our infrastructure is not really being addressed at the moment."

Agricultural science student Muirenn Duffy says she doesn't have a huge interest in politics, but she did make the effort to register to vote last week. "I don't know what way I'm going to vote. I really don't know what's happening with this election. It's exam time, so I'm not really concentrating on it." Duffy says she might have more of an interest if she'd learned about politics in school, but she says: "I don't really think students are targeted by politicians."

Although they intend to vote, these students feel apathy is a problem. "There's major apathy within the students of this college and everywhere I think," says Rossa White, a regular voter from Co Meath. "Probably one of the reasons is we've become a bit more selfish, but other than that, I think people have turned off politics because of the scandals over the last year so. I think students think they (politicians) are only trying to buy votes, get in and look out for themselves and they can't see what they're giving to students to make their lives better."

Student leaders resent the label "apathetic" because they're not. They are a highly politicised bunch and for a number of them the USI is really just the Oireachtas nursery. They seem unwilling to acknowledge that the greater student body isn't particularly interested or active in politics, student politics or at national level, so they concentrate on what's preventing students from voting, such as not having the election on a Saturday. Their survey, however, doesn't indicate whether students living in the family home while attending college are more likely to vote.

It's not that the USI have got it all wrong; its job is to fight for the student agenda. As politicians, that's their constituency. But perhaps it's naïve to believe that the union rank and file are as committed.

And it's not that students are intellectually unable for politics. In fact, what USI may be faced with are student members who are far more pragmatic than they are. Their main concern is their exam results. They'll do whatever it takes to get through and they might worry about politics when they have a job. At the moment, it would take up valuable time and ultimately it wouldn't benefit them. Affordable accommodation will take a few years to plan, same for increasing the grant. Any work they do would be benefiting further generations of students, so they're better off using their time to do more hours in the call-centre until they can make some real money.

Such cynicism does not taint the Union of Students of Ireland, which holds fast to the notion that "apathetic" is an unfair and an untrue label. "Students are an easy target. If you were to call the unemployed lazy, there'd be a national outcry, and rightly so, but you can say anything about students and get away with it because they have little voice given to them," says Jordan.

He concedes that, as with every sector of society, there are people who are "not wholly involved", but he feels undue media attention has been given to the non-participation of students. "And why do they focus on it? Because it's popular to do so," he says. "Unfortunately stereotypes dog you. One of the most important battles the USI has is against stereotypes."

In the end, he says, whether or not students vote shouldn't determine whether politicians move on student issues. "Students are not getting what they need or what they deserve. Even if they were to stay in their rooms with their fingers in their ears from the next few weeks, that still doesn't mean politicians should ignore them," he says. "Politicians should have the moral fibre to stand up and recognise what's important."