Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, what happened last March was that the clinical placements were stopped and the students had to make up that time later in the year. The clinical placements were stopped and the supervising senior nurses were then deployed into the healthcare system. About one in three students who were on placement where the placements were paused came back as healthcare assistants and were employed as healthcare assistants. What is important is that under the EU directive, that time cannot count towards their clinical placement and degree. My understanding is that a lot of work was done to make up that time. To some extent, what happened last March did happen so the HSE did request that the clinical placements for the first, second and third years be paused and I accepted that request. They were paused for a short number of weeks. We wanted to pause them for as short a period of time as possible. It was at the time when the need for qualified nurses was at its greatest so they were redeployed accordingly. As per March, some hospitals did engage with students and brought them back as healthcare assistants. Essentially, with regard to last March, to some extent, although it will not be perfectly comparable, what happened again was that the clinical placements were paused and some students came back as healthcare assistants and were paid as healthcare assistants. I know the Department, the HSE and the higher education authorities are now working to find opportunities for those students to make up that clinical placement time.