By Sorcha Jowitt
Presidential candidates have been touring university campuses nationwide in an effort to reach students, despite many being unable to vote.
Debates took place in University College Dublin (UCD) between Mary Davis and Sean Gallagher, while Mr Gallagher made his own appearance in Dublin City University (DCU) this week.
Although the candidates have been reaching out to students in recent weeks the election will still be held on a day where thousands will not be able to vote as they are out of their constituencies and will not make it home in time.
“Now the government have decided to proceed with running the election on a Thursday, little can be done,” said Union of Students in Ireland (USI) President, Gary Redmond.
He also explained that the USI has attempted to reach the candidates on behalf of students.
“We sent a two page document to each candidate to show their stance in different areas which will be published in the next week or so. However, we are still missing two.”
DCU Students’ Union President, Ed Leamy, said DCU also encouraged a change in date for the election.
“DCUSU have asked the Government to switch the voting day to a weekend date for the sake of the youth vote. They would not listen.”
He also explained why he thought the change in date did not occur, “It seems they are afraid of the young vote. My guess is that they estimate young people will most likely not be voting for party aligned candidates, and as a result they are trying to limit the amount of young people voting.”
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