Info case costs still an issue

THE RECRIMINATIONS continue over recent events in UCD, which appear to have resulted in the Labour members of Government backing out of plans to assist three students unions with their court costs in the ongoing abortion information case.

It had been known for some time in student and media circles that the Government, particularly a section of the Labour Party, was unwilling to let USI and the unions in TCD and UCD flounder in a sea of costs - estimated at £250,000 - if they lost their appeal to the Supreme Court against an injunction preventing the distribution of abortion information.

The price of this knowledge was silence, since this might be a sensitive issue. However, UCD students union president Shane Fitzgerald told UCD student leaders that a Labour knight on a white horse was poised to step in and rescue them.

The information was passed on to a college journalist and publicised, both at college and national level, with the result that the Labour moneymen backed off quickly - probably leaving the three unions to face "their costs alone if the appeal goes against them.

Fitzgerald has since been the object of considerable criticism - some of it, ironically, coming from the direction of those who publicised the details.

The losers in all this are, of course, the students in the affected colleges. UCD students union is understood to have a tidy sum of money squirreled away, while USI should also manage to rustle up its share of costs if the worst comes to the worst.

TCD students union in contrast, has only recently watched its finances climb slowly into the black. A legal bill of £80,000 to £100,000 will leave the union hurting badly.

TCD students union president Fergus Finnegan says the unions will wait to see the verdict of the Supreme Court before making any further moves on the costs issue, but the three unions involved are committed to providing a "visible student presence on the day advocating pro choice and student survival".