Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Those who are trying to underestimate the threat of Covid-19, as Deputy Eoghan Murphy just did, need to explain why there are hospitals in this city turning patients away because they have had Covid outbreaks, irrespective of whether the patients are Covid patients or non-Covid patients. That is with infection rates at a relatively low level. If the rates rise, our hospitals will be overrun, and people who make irresponsible comments will have a lot to answer for.

In the insulting amount of time given to discuss the most important issue affecting this country, I am going to make just one point to the Minister. If he wants a Covid strategy that works, he should treat with respect, dignity and support the health workers who are on the front line fighting Covid-19. He is singularly failing to do that.

I will not go through in detail the long list of comments made to me, including those of the contact tracers and testers who do not get sick pay and who are on temporary contracts and the nursing staff who have had their pay cut in recent years because of the FEMPI legislation and who have been affected by under-staffing and under-resourcing; I will just speak up for one particular group, the student nurses and midwives. Thousands of them have been working on the front line. The Minister was forced in March and April to accept they were working and should, therefore, be paid and then pulled the rug under that payment leaving them working for nothing again on the front line.

I held an online meeting last night with student nurses and midwives. I will allude to some of the comments they made in the short time I have available. They were furious with the Minister over the €50 allowance for accommodation, which most or many of them do not get, and the miserable little travel allowance. They just laughed at the idea that the Minister is protecting their education. One individual said the student nurses are left to their own devices to do front-line work. Another said nurses are doing 12 and 13-hour shifts with no nurse beside them. Yet another said nurses are working in a red zone with Covid patients, covering for staff shortages and people who are sick. I was told student nurses are worried about their family members with underlying conditions. I was also told student nurses had to give up their jobs to do their placements and that this would not be tolerated if they were mostly men. They ask how it is that paramedics, gardaí, those who do military training and apprentices get paid while they are training and student nurses do not although they are actually working on the front line in hospitals.

I was told the €50 allowance would not even cover the cost of accommodation and that it would barely cover the cost of a cardboard box. I was also told student nurses and midwives need to pay for parking and that the parking charges for one week are more than they get. Some are paying fees of €3,000 and not getting paid, and mature students are paying €7,000 and not getting paid. The individuals I spoke to say student nurses and midwives fear speaking out and were warned not to speak to the media. I discovered mental health nurses are talking about the fact that their mental health is absolutely in bits because of the situation they are facing. I learned that student nurses are doing multiple academic assignments while filling in for sick staff and understaffed hospitals. They ask how they are even supposed to live or do their shopping. That is how the Minister is treating them. He should pay the student nurses, end the exploitation and treat healthcare workers with respect.

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