At lunchtime students mill about the common area in DCU's U building, eating lunch - homemade sandwiches wrapped in tin foil for many - and chatting.
There is a card game going, and others are gathered about a piano, taking turns to play.
When you ask students what they want to see in this week’s budget the answer is invariably the same 'reduce fees, and increase and widen SUSI supports’.
For the past three years the Government has waived €1,000 of the €3,000 or so paid in fees by Irish students.
We will have to wait until Tuesday to know for sure, but the indications are that this temporary cost of living measure is being done away with, to be replaced by a permanent €500 reduction in fees.
Word of this has gone out to students, it has become a fact in their minds, and they are not happy.
Speaking to students at DCU last week it was clear that they are thinking short-term, thinking about the money they need now to get by.
It matters little to them whether a reduction is temporary or permanent. The way they see it, they will be €500 the poorer after Tuesday, and they are unhappy about that.
'What is important is helping students with their fees'
Michael Zholob, a third year Multimedia student said: "What is important is helping students with their fees.
"This is the biggest issue. If you ask anyone in the university, everyone is worried and concerned if the government doesn’t do anything about student fees."
He feels that students were promised that the €1,000 would become permanent.
"We’ve heard people over and over from different political parties claiming that they were going to look out for students, but in reality it feels like nothing really is changing.
"Instead of giving us solutions and giving us help it looks like they're giving of us just the scrapings of the plate."
Of this temporary €1,000 relief given to students in recent years, Politics student Alice Jack said "that needs to continue".
"Or fees need to be abolished" she added, "or lowered completely".
"We have the highest fees in Europe".
Alice said she was speaking as the daughter of a single mother "who has worked her entire life to try and get me into college".
"And I still have to work two jobs just to be able to afford it because I can’t qualify for the SUSI grant".
Alice works up to 30 hours per week, 20 hours at her weekend job and often up to 10 hours during the week.
"I don’t have time for anything else. I’m constantly working. I’m trying to study and I still can’t afford to live here", she said.
Students balancing studies with part-time work
Every student we interviewed was balancing their studies with part-time weekend work.
"Students are really struggling with the cost of living," Emma Monahan of Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éireann (AMLÉ) told us.
"We’re seeing students commuting long distances, students who can’t afford accommodation, students working full-time jobs, students couch-surfing," she said.
"We are even seeing a lot of scams around money-muling where students are doing things that will give them quick cash, and they are not aware that it is a crime."
"From the budget students really need to see some kind of rent relief," she said.
"They need to see some kind of cost-of-living measures, and obviously, we always want to see the fees continue to decrease."
Emma and AMLÉ have mixed feelings about the idea of replacing a €1000 temporary reduction with a €500 permanent reduction.
"I know students who may not be able to afford lunch."
While a permanent reduction is welcome "any kind of an increase is an increase and a strain on students’ pockets", she said.
Vincent Hynes is living in college accommodation at DCU. He spends five days at DCU then travels home to Westmeath to work two days over the weekend.
The decision by the university to increase the cost of accommodation by more than €50 a month, from around €800 to €850 has hit him badly.
"Its kinda non-stop, five days a week studying then home at the weekend [to work]. There isn’t really any break."
The rent last year was, he said, "pretty ok" and he could cover it and food with the help of his weekend job.
"But now due to the increases on campus I can’t really afford it anymore, and I’ve had to rely on my parents.
"It’s a bit of a killer to have to go back and ask them for more, especially when they have their own bills to pay."
Despite all this Vincent considers himself lucky. "I know students who may not be able to afford lunch", he said.
"I would love an increase in the SUSI grant" Ayse Ferengizbilge told us. "I pay for my fees. I had to pay €1,555 this month.
"I work part-time but I only get €800, because I only work 2 days a week. The next fees are due in January and l won’t be able to afford that".
So what is she going to do?
"My mum did say she would be able to help, but with Christmas coming, everything is going towards that, the timing is really bad. My mum is going to try to get a loan", she said.
Students concerned about financial burdens facing parents
It is clear these students are concerned about the financial burdens facing their parents.
"I feel that €1,000 drop in the fees last year, that was a weight off their shoulders", said Lauren Kane. "And now, with the increase, that is a weight on their minds, that they have coming up to Christmas, and especially if a family has young kids and they have to save for Christmas".
The cost of living is a key issue for student Ben Watson too.
Ben was at a stand being run by the college’s Politics Society, with posters and fliers encouraging students to register to vote in time for the Presidential Election.
Because Ben cannot find affordable accommodation in Dublin he commutes from his family home in a village in Co Kildare.
Ben’s journey from there to DCU typically takes two hours, according to him. (For a Monday 10am arrival time Google maps gave us a 2 hour and 44 minutes estimate).
Ben has a lot to say about public transport here, and none of it is good.
"If I have a lecture at 12 I have to get up at 6am.
"Then when I get here I’m waiting around for 4 or 5 hours just for one lecture.
"I’m coming to my lecture tired and I’m not studying effectively because I’m tired. I have to go home and work a job to pay for my bus fare to get up here."
Ben rails against a public transport system that he calls "shoddy".
On the day we spoke to him he had missed his 12 lecture, because of scheduled buses in the capital that had failed to show.
It is clear that some of the problems faced by students are not unique to them.
