University seats should be non-party, says independent

Mike Cosgrave, an independent candidate for the NUI senate panel, today called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to withdraw his support for a Fianna Fail Candidate running for the NUI panel.

"The university seats have traditionally been non-party," Cosgrave said "and it is amazing that a politician of such experience as Bertie Ahern should fly in the face of the traditional independence of these seats.

"University Senators have been some of the most useful members in the Senate, but I guess Bertie just wants to shut down all opposition and fill the Senate completely with failed TDs."

Cosgrave also attacked sitting Senator Brendan Ryan, who ran for Labour in Cork South Central but failed to get elected.

Having run for Labour, Cosgrave said, Ryan should have run for one of the 43 political seats instead of the independent university seats.

He pointed out that both FF and Labour possess resources far beyond those of the independent candidates. Existing campaign spending rules also favour party candidates.

Cosgrave was also critical of teachers’ union leaders who have extended their internal disputes into the arena of the Senate elections.

Splits in the teachers’ unions, he said, need to be resolved within those bodies, quickly, to permit them to rebuild the respect their profession enjoyed.

"We have to stop this rot before we lose the independence of the university seats," Cosgrave said.

"If we don't stop it now, the historic independence of these seats will be swamped by party

candidates next time round."

He called on the voters in the university constituencies to vote for genuinely independent candidates, and invited the other independents to join him in a transfer pact among the independent candidates.