David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit and Teachta Paul Murphy for bringing forward this motion which is very important. It is an issue many of us have been campaigning on for a number of months. I have had numerous engagements with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and have received thousands of emails from nurses and midwives on a range of issues over the past number of months, in particular on this issue. I also note the solidarity of senior nurses and midwives with their student nurse and midwife colleagues and the overall support for the call that has been made in this motion and in the INMO’s campaign.

The Minister of State’s speech and the Government’s position on this rings very hollow. It is the same old rhetoric from the Government where it will say all the right things, it will clap the front-line workers on the back, tell them that they are heroes and essential front-line workers and that they are doing a great job, but when it comes to action I am afraid the Government is hiding before behind its fine words. The reality is that student nurses and midwives are, and have been, doing an incredible job. Long before Covid-19 came along, pay and increased supports for student nurses has been an issue. It has become more of an issue because of the very significant and exceptional work those on the front line have done during this Covid-19 crisis. Student nurses and midwives, like all those on the front line, have been the glue that has kept our health service together and kept people safe. Hospital managers, consultants and specialists would not have been able to do their job had they not been supported by those student nurses and midwives.

Their demands are very simple. The Minister of State knows what they are and they have been calling for them for some time. The INMO's call is very reasonable. It is that we should pay all final year interns the same rate as healthcare assistants. This should be done without delay. The Government’s amendment again mentions more processes and talks and that it will have to examine this, etc., which is the language the Government uses when it does not want to do something. The reality is that this can be done very quickly. In fact, it was done earlier this year and yet that payment was then removed for fourth year students. That should be immediately reinstated and those fourth year students should be on same rate as healthcare assistants.

The INMO is also calling for an increased and expanded clinical placement allowance for all other students. The Government's amendment to the motion states it will examine, look at, discuss and so forth, but it does not give any commitment. That is what I mean when I say that the Government’s statement and its contribution today rings hollow because this can be done very quickly. The only people who are stopping the Government doing this are the Government itself. If it really believes this issue should be dealt with and that first, second and third year students should have increased and expanded clinical placement allowances, then the Government can and should do it very quickly.

The INMO is calling for a provision of full health and safety protection to all students, including payment if they have to go on Covid-19-related leave. That is not the case at the moment, which I find extraordinary. We all know of the efforts that have been made by these workers over the past number of months. Many of them have experienced burnout given the work and the overtime they have done, and I am talking here about all nurses and midwives, including student nurses and midwives. The enormous trauma they have been through in dealing with a very difficult situation has to be acknowledged and commended but not just with fine words. It has to be backed up by action, substance and firm policy commitments by the Government and the State, saying that we recognise the work they do.

The Minister of State knows what the issues are and what is being asked of her Government. Fourth year interns should be paid the healthcare assistants' rate and first, second and third years should receive greater allowances and not the pittance they are paid at the moment, which is a disgrace. We need more action from the Government.

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