No third degree, can't use it anyway!

By Elaine Canny

It’s that time of year again , when the prospect of a couple of hours of sunshine gets us giddy inside and for the poor students snowed under with exams, the light in the tunnel is starting to peep through the rain clouds. Yet, thousands of graduates finishing up colleges this May face a future of unemployment and a long wait at the dole queue. So are the likes of Declan Ganley with his promises of more jobs and economic recovery going to take the degrees out of our pockets and magically give us all a job? Surly it can’t be that hard, either that or he may have some of his 30 million euros left over to help us pay the rent for a while.

With last week’s survey ‘Do you know Europe’ revealing that most young people don’t even use their vote, it also revealed that there is a stigma attached to the word ‘politician’, with young people thinking that ‘political heads’ are sweet on the outside but sour on the inside. Yet Declan Ganley, speaking at a public meeting in Galway last night claims :"I’m not a politician, i won’t lie to you, i won’t tell you what i think you want to hear because it sounds good to your ears and you’ll give me a vote, I’ll tell you the truth every single time". Well then if he is not a politician what is he? Oprah?

One can’t turn a head sideways but to see campaign posters plastered all over the streets, yet it comes to question, while these MEPs fight for every vote, visit towns and cities all over the country, we are yet to see them visit a dole queue. That’s where their votes lie, not in the hotels, not at functions where they serve light refreshments, come to think of it, the poor guys that wait for hours in the rain waiting to be allowed into the dole office could do with a few of those. Maybe some North Western MEPs can mark that on their itinerary.

Speaking to Barry Walsh ,President of Young Fine Gael, "it’s no secret that the issue of the moment is jobs, and the collapse of the economy across all levels for young people , Europe has a very important role in getting us out of that, that would be what our European candidates would be stressing without a doubt.

‘There is massive dissatisfaction with the government, people everywhere want Fianna Fáil out, I was canvassing in Dublin Central ,and people my own age, in their twenties were shocked at the amount of anti Fianna Fail (...) , people want job security and economic recovery. There is an absolute distain towards Fianna Fail and their role in all of that."

So it looks like the MEPs will have to battle it out amongst themselves while the general public go about their business in this uncertain climate. In the meantime, students will continue to study for nothing, and the dole queue will continue to rise. Super Friday is on June 5th.