Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, will respond to the question on the pay commission and his engagement and on the issue of the negotiations.

On Deputy Pringle's question regarding the comment in my opening statement about the need to do more to keep our student nurses, on becoming graduate nurses, in this country, we have taken a number of steps, which have been acknowledged by the nursing unions. We established the Public Service Pay Commission specifically to examine what could be done on recruitment and retention. We specifically asked an independent body with union representation from ICTU, IMPACT and SIPTU former personnel to examine that issue. We have also tried a number of other initiatives, including offering all graduating student nurses full-time contracts. Clearly, there is more to do. Let there be no misunderstanding, we want to have that conversation to resolve the dispute.

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