Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will say again that some nurses on clinical placements get an allowance of up to €50 per week, but many do not. It is simply not good enough. In the early stages of the pandemic, many of those student nurses were getting a rate equivalent to that of a health care assistant, HCA. That was discontinued. The Minister must reinstate that rate. He needs to deal with this very urgently. As I said, these people are doing a first-class job on the front line. They should be rewarded and respected and they should get paid for it.

I also wish to ask the Minister about a separate issue to do with a previous negotiation between the State and the IMO. I refer to the IMO contract which was the subject of discussion earlier this evening. When he spoke in the Dáil on 16 April 2019, he made it very clear that it was his understanding that the document which we have been told was agreed was not widely known or shared with GPs. Is that the Minister's position? Can he also confirm to the House that the Department of Health will make all communications between the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP, the HSE and the Department between April and May 2019 available to Deputies who seek it? We have sought it and we have not yet got it.

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