The provisional Budget for the Students’ Union will be released today in the third Class Rep Council of the year, in breach of DCUSU constitution.
The budget which outlines expenditure for DCU students’ union was delayed for release until week eleven due to delays in election of class reps and queries raised by the Office of Student Life.
CRC reps asked that the budget be shared via email prior to CRC2, but Úna Redmond, manager of Office of Student Life is required to approve the budget before release. Redmond as well as SU president Niall Behan and VP for Education and Placement Mathew Davey were out of the country and could not approve it before the second meeting of the CRC.
Article 10 of the constitution which deals with Management of Finance, Property and Employment, states that “the Budget shall be submitted to Class Representative Council at its first meeting of the year for approval or rejection, but not modification.”
The CRC has never rejected a SU budget before, according to faculty representative for the business school Bryan Mulry.
Aaron Harper, rep for third year Multimedia, expressed concern during the last CRC meeting that the budget had not yet been released eleven weeks into the semester, considering money has already been spent by the SU on events such as the Halloween Ball.
“At the last CRC they said that the only reason that we didn’t get the budget was down to people being away, which isn’t really a factor especially with Úna who is away with Niall and Matt in America,” said Harper. “They knew they were going away, they do that every year, so surely they can take that into consideration. Why did it take so long to get the budget finalised before that when they would have been working on the budget since before June?”
Harper asked for an AOB in which the sabbatical officers would provide an explanation of why the budget had not been presented at the council or through email.
SU representatives said the budget will be emailed before CRC3, but will not be approved or rejected by Class Reps until tonight.
“I would (vote to reject) even if it ruins this year, or that it puts a lot of people under pressure. It would mean that in years to come that they would be a bit more fiscally responsible with the money because it’s a lot of money that they are put in charge of and if they’re just gonna spend it so irresponsibly I think that they should be held to account for that,” said Harper.
Kyle Ewald & Fionnuala Walsh