More than 70,000 third-level students will be disenfranchised if the Taoiseach insists that the general election is not held on a Friday, according to the president of the Union of Students of Ireland (USI).
On the eve of the USI's annual congress, which opens in Bundoran, Co Donegal, today, Colm Hamrogue said yesterday that at a time when student leaders were being proactive in encouraging members to engage with politics, the Government was set to deny thousands of people the opportunity to participate in the democratic process.
"The Taoiseach will disenfranchise over 70,000 students who live away from home if he does not have the election on a Friday," said Mr Hamrogue.
He pointed out that 54 per cent of the 140,000 third-level student population did not live at home.
"We are talking about a massive body of people here," he pointed out. "In the 1960s, just 7 per cent of school leavers went on to third level, but that has jumped to over 60 per cent today".
Mr Hamrogue said the attitude among TDs and from Mr Ahern seemed to be that students would not bother voting, but he believed that every effort should be made to encourage students to vote and to take an interest in the process.
"It is often said that if you get people to vote once, they will vote for the rest of their lives," Mr Hamrogue added.
Instead of adopting the attitude that students would not vote, politicians should be examining issues such as campus voting and electronic voting and other mechanisms that could make access to the political process easier for young people.
"This also applies to people who work away from home," said Mr Hamrogue.
"This is an economy where people are working more hours, trying to make a living and to buy a house. Society is changing very quickly, but our democratic process has not changed. If there is apathy, we need to look at why that is."
Mr Ahern recently voiced his strong opposition to holding the election on a Friday, saying that he had "listened to the argument the last time and it didn't work".
He said that people now wanted to get out of the city on a Friday afternoon and he added that a lot of students would be gone by the time the election was held.
