Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The question raised is important. It is about restoring incremental credit for the first 36 weeks of a clinical placement undertaken in the fourth and final year of the degree programme in nursing. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, met the union in the past hour. His officials met those concerned last week to discuss the matter. Yesterday officials from the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform met to discuss whether there was scope to accelerate the review process for the restoration of incremental credit to those who graduated between 2011 and 2015 and to do so prior to 2018. The Department of Health is to submit an updated business case in a revised submission to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in the coming days.

I expect that will receive consideration in terms of seeing if we can move this forward.

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