Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We all know this is much more cost effective. However, people would be employed at the proper and full rate. So Members understand, the graduate nurses and midwives are people who have families Many of them have children. They have rent and mortgages to pay like everybody else. They are telling us very clearly that they cannot and will not carry out these duties at yellow pack rates. It is as simple as this. It is very depressing to hear the leader of the Labour Party support so fulsomely a scheme - or scam - which is not about new jobs or any concern for young graduates or stopping emigration but which is all about driving down the wages of the nursing profession. It is nurses today. Who will it be next? Is this the blueprint for the health services? Is the Government intent on expanding this throughout the professions?

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