The cost of living has “ballooned” in UCD with the price of chicken fillet rolls increasing along with rents.
The cost of the deli favourite used to cost €3 but has jumped to €4 - an example UCD Students' Union say highlights the drastic rise in the cost of living for students.
Ruairi Power, UCDSU President told Dublin Live: “The overall focus was the cost of studying at UCD and (the chicken fillet roll) was a bit of a meme we put into it.
“We focused on four key areas which were the cost of accommodation, investments in support services, paying conditions for postgraduate workers and putting students and staff first.
“The chicken fillet rolls came into it because the cost of everything has gone up. The point behind it is that students feel priced out of it in every front.
“The rent on campus has doubled in recent years, we’re paying the highest fees in Europe.
“The chicken fillet roll is one part of it, but what we’re really seeing is a sector that is starved of funding by the government and there’s limited funds provided to UCD, we’re not seeing students being prioritised, rather the corporate sector of the university.”
The chicken fillet roll may only be a small thing, but students are suffering with skyrocketing rent, fees are through the roof, all while student support services are starved of investment.
Mr Power continued: “The counselling service in UCD is fantastic, they do a lot of valuable work but we don’t have enough staff there due to financial neglect by the university management team.
“On campus, studio apartments cant be €1,200 to €1300 a month, while more affordable rooms that were built about 40 years ago are increasing each year in order to finance the mortgage on the newly built ones.
“The students from low and middle income backgrounds are being impacted, and international students have a bigger fee burden as well. People from marginalised groups are really the ones losing out.
“There’s a responsibility on the government to step up to build up the core funding and reduce fees as well. UCD is pumping money into the vanity projects instead of essential student support services.”
A spokeswoman for Wrights' Centra in UCD told Dublin Live rising costs were the reason for the increase in chicken fillet roll prices.
She said: "Due to a number of issues namely; severely rising energy costs having a direct impact on supply chain, increasing transport and packaging costs, there has been a knock on impact on the cost of some items across retail.
"The cost of a chicken fillet roll at Wrights’ Centra UCD has had to increase from €3.50 by 50 cents because of these factors and is now €4 for the standard roll with two fillings.
"At Centra we are very conscious of price and the impact on our customers, many of whom are facing increased costs for utilities, transport and food among other essentials. We are doing all that we can to offset any price inflation."
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