Official Statement from Dr. Martin Mansergh

This weekend FUSE received an official statement from Dr. Martin Mansergh, TD for Tipperary South, showing his support for the university of the South East. In his statement, Dr. Mansergh draws attention to the progressive attitude of neighbouring countries such as Britain, toward catering for all regions equally, with universities. He refers to the benefit observed by the inclusion of a university within a region and that by British standards, (and by other international standards as testified to previously by Dr. Jim Port and Prof. Robin Farquhar), that WIT would be undoubtedly and unreservedly re-designated to a university for the South East region. Read the full statement here.

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FUSE in St. Patrick’s Day Parade

FUSE in St. Patrick’s Day Parade Originally uploaded by se4u2008

FUSE were represented in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Waterford City. Several groups carried banners of support for the campaign and other entries in the parade also did their bit to raise awareness for the university issue in the South East. The group carrying the banner also made the 6 o’clock news on RTE where the message of the campaign was broadcast to the national audience.

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GAA Support

Photo GAA Support Originally uploaded by se4u2008

The Friends of the University for the South East visited the National Hurling League clash between Waterford and Kilkenny at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny today. There was a great turn out for the game and many of the supporters took an interest in events off the pitch too; namely the activities of the FUSE members. People were on hand to answer questions and provide information about the university drive and the overwhelming majority of match-goers were in favour of the university for the South East and were aware of the importance of it for the region. Former GAA president Paddy Buggy was also at the game and showed his support for the campaign by posing for photographs with the FUSE members present.

We also managed to get some action shots of the players during the match today, visit our photos page to see them and why not download your favourite and use it as your desktop background.

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Newsletters

Since we started to send out our newsletters we have noticed that some e-mail addresses are bouncing back as they were accidentally typed incorrectly or the e-mail server is incorrectly marking our newsletter as spam. To ensure that you don’t miss out on our newsletters we have made them available on the website also. You can see them listed under the heading “Newsletters” on the right hand side of the News page, just below the search box.

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Dáil Debate March 14th

The issue of the University for the South East was debated in the Dáil today with contributions from many members of the house including Deputy Tom Hayes and Deputy Martin Mansergh. The discussion was incredibly favourable of a university being established in the South East, with emphasis being placed on the economic benefits and the past examples of such success in the other university regions of Ireland. The discussion went on to state that the South East is the only region not served by a university facility and that providing one for the region is an unassailable argument. It was outlined that the development of our country and the South East region was not something that other universities should control. Emphasis was also placed on how Ireland would match up to its competitors, such as the UK if it did not do everything possible to ensure that all regions had a university serving its needs and business development potential. Read the entire debate here.

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Letters to Politicians

A number of people have sent their support to the website but have also said that they are unsure about what they should write in a letter to the Minister or to their local TD. We have created a set of sample letters that you can use as a starting point to write your letter - add your points or change ours as you see necessary. Above all, make sure that you send your e-mails and letters to the government representatives - we need your letters to reach them. Also in the getting involved section (point 6) and the homepage of the site (points in blue on the right side of the page), you will see a link that allows you to e-mail all the relevant cabinet ministers and regional TDs without having to copy or type their addresses. Click here (Outlook users click here) to do start the same e-mail and copy one of our sample letters as a starting point for your content.

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Fine Gael Position

This Sunday Fine Gael TD, Brian Hayes, unveiled the Fine Gael position on the re-designation of WIT to be the university for the South East. FUSE welcome this statement of support by Fine Gael, that the South East region is ready for a university. It is the kind of political party support that everybody needs to hear and we hope that more parties will follow with similar statements in the near future. 

The Fine Gael statement is available here
Also an Irish Times article on the subject is available here (note will require Irish Times account to view) 

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IBEC Support

This morning, a letter from IBEC went out to all the regional companies asking them to support the FUSE campaign and support the drive for the university in the South East. So far we have received a great response from this with many company directors and management sending in e-mails of their support for this campaign and the need for a university within the South East. Thank you all for your support so far and please keep those letters and e-mails of support coming in.

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Support from Hurlers

Last Saturday members of the FUSE group personally distributed over 3000 flyers to the majority of retail businesses in Waterford City in an attempt to raise awareness of campaign. On Sunday members of the FUSE group attended the National Hurling League game between Wexford and Kilkenny in Wexford Park. It was a great day with many supporters of the game, stopping to offer words of support to the campaign also. Many more flyers were distributed and the campaign was mentioned on both South East Radio and also Radio 1. After the match some high profile people came to show their support for the campaign. Those who posed for pictures to support the campaign included members of both the Wexford and Kilkenny hurling teams. In addition, Brian Cody, Kilkenny manager, posed for a photo and offered words of support. Also, legendary GAA commentator, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh posed for a photo and offered his support for the campaign. Check out the photos below.

Kilkenny Hurlers show their support. 

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh shows support for FUSE 

Wexford hurlers show their support. 

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Thank you for your support!

Since the campaign started, just a week ago, the level of support received has been fantastic. Every letter of support, every e-mail and every kind word that we have received, has given the campaign so much encouragement. Whether it’s a letter sent to us or people in the street and the shops that we speak to, everyone is fully onboard with their support for this need of a university for our region. Thank you all so far, for all your encouragement but keep it coming too, it’s your voices that matter to this campaign, we can’t do it without you!

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