The Students' Unions of University College Dublin and University College Cork, whose members voted last month to return to the Union of Students in Ireland, had their constitutions ratified at an emergency national council meeting of the national union in Tralee, Co Kerry, last week.

This is the first step in formally readmitting the unions to USI, and means union president Dermot Lohan is likely to survive the second round of any impeachment process.

Lohan's opponents believe he could face a dismissal hearing before the end of the month as Tallaght Institute of Technology's students' union initiated a dismissal process on January 20th. However, even if the hearing went against him by the necessary two-thirds majority, Lohan would have the right to appeal to a special congress of USI - the annual congress of USI takes place at the end of March, and would be the likely forum for any such appeal. With UCD and UCC likely to be readmitted to the national union at the congress, Lohan would seem to have the requisite number of votes to survive the second hearing. However, a vote on Lohan's dismissal at congress, even if it were unsuccessful, would make it difficult for him to run for a second term as president; the sabbatical officers for the following year are elected by delegates at the same congress.

There was controversy over the timing and location of Thursday's national council meeting to begin readmitting UCD and UCC. Emergency council meeting require five days' notice, but some unions say they weren't aware of the meeting until Monday of last week. The University of Ulster students' union overall president, Shane Whelehan, wrote to Lohan to argue that the manner in which the meeting was called breached constitutional guidelines.

The UU union and four other students' unions unsuccessfully proposed an alternative council meeting on the following Monday in Dublin. No Northern colleges attended the Tralee meeting, and delegates from the Dublin Institute of Technology were also unable to attend. Only 10 of USI's member unions attended in all.

Lohan had another piece of good news earlier in the week, when the union at NUI Galway decided to postpone its referendum on whether to remain a member of the national union. It is unlikely the referendum will take place before the last term of the academic year.

USI will also face affiliation referendums in Tralee Institute of Technology and the University of Ulster in the last term. The president of Tralee's students' union, Sean Comer, says his union will call for a "Yes" vote.

This page is compiled and written by Roddy O'Sullivan