Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have been spokesperson on health for several years and have sat in committees with the current Minister for Health. I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that it is very disappointing that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, cannot be here for this debate, considering what he has said in the past on this issue, including having queried why so many of our nurses were abroad and would not work here in Ireland. I would like the Minister to dwell on what he has said on this issue and on the questions he asked in this regard in the past. It would have been good if the Minister was here to listen to what we have to tell him today in querying why so many nurses have left our shores for the UK, Australia, and Dubai. They are, however, still leaving. I have been contacted by people who are going to leave this country again. They came home to fight Covid but cannot get permanent jobs. Some of them are from the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's county. They are leaving again. That is madness. A Government has fundamental problems in this area if it allows this to transpire. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, might just take this back to Government.

Why are they leaving still? The answer is very much in the attitude of how the Government is replying to this motion. I thank the proposers of the motion. The unions, SIPTU and INMO, have been shouting from the rooftops about this for some time. Nurses are at breaking point. I must declare that a family member is in nursing and I have relations who are trying to become nurses, like many other people here. The nurses are at breaking point. They feel they are not being treated well. Student nurses feel they are being treated diabolically. They are having to act beyond what is in any way normal for a student nurse and they are effectively full-time nurses. They are put to the pin of their collars, being supported by their families to be able to go through this to become nurses. They are putting themselves at risk, many of them have got Covid and many have become very sick.

If this was to be measured against public opinion, I put it to the Minister of State that the public fully believes that nurses and student nurses should be paid appropriately. Student nurses are being treated disgracefully. The work they are doing is slave labour. What the Government is doing to them is morally wrong and morally unjustifiable. It is something the Government could sort our quickly and it would not cost a lot. We are coming up to Christmas. Just sort it out.

I have heard various people say that there is a worry about setting a precedent. There is no worry here about precedent. There is precedent about a whole range of other areas. I do not believe that anyone in the House or any member of the public would have an issue if student nurses were paid appropriately, given the way they have worked during the pandemic. If the Minister of State agrees, then let us make it happen. Why can the Minister of State not do this? The Minister of State did answer me.

They are putting themselves at risk, they have already paid €3,000 in fees for blended learning, and as we know they have had to give up part-time jobs because they cannot put other people at risk due to their work and the chances of getting Covid. Because of this, the process by which they pay their fees, accommodation, transport and everything else is way more difficult because they cannot get additional income. We have made various hulabaloos about how much we support them and recognise them, but coming up to Christmas I believe the Minister of State has only one choice to make.

I will now read out something from a nurse. Let us call her Sarah Jane, because then she will know who she is. She works in the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland, which is University Hospital Limerick, which is the main regional hospital in the area where I live:

The issue of pay is not because we the student nurses and midwives across Ireland are money hungry. The day I walked into nursing I knew I did not want to be anything else. It is a vocation. I have never asked for anything in return. The issue here is fair pay for fair work. In understaffed and underfunded hospitals we carry out many of the same tasks as qualified healthcare assistants, yet we receive no pay for it. Why are we being treated like this by a Government who say they cherish us?

All nurses across Ireland support student nurses like Sarah Jane. Student nurses and nurses who are qualified all support them. This Government really needs to feel the wrath of the nursing community. I say this quite publicly. The Government needs to feel the wrath of the nursing community and the healthcare community in general with regard to how we treat young people, how we are going to be understaffed again into the future and how we are pushing so many nurses throughout the country into actually leaving the State and going to Dubai, America and Britain again.

That is exactly what we are doing. If the Government is not going to deal with this, we in the Labour Party have a plan to make it do so. We will consider that after the vote on this motion.

This matter is unconscionable. As a party that represents workers, we will not stand and tolerate a Government that treats workers like this. It is effectively treating them as second class workers, telling them they have to work the same way as other nurses but will not be remunerated or treated with respect. It is also asking them to put their lives at risk. That is what the Government is doing. In any form of society, that is wrong. It is wrong to treat workers like this and we will not tolerate it. Other countries across the world are acknowledging healthcare staff in some form at Christmas time. It is very difficult to go past words but some form of recognition or remuneration would be helpful to all healthcare workers. However, I am sure many of them would give that up if the Government would deal with this issue now, before Christmas.

Another issue that has come to my attention is that nurses are being asked to renew their membership of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, for 2021. After everything healthcare workers and front-line heroes have done throughout 2020, they now have to pay for the privilege of working in our hospitals in 2021. Surely it is not too much to ask that this fee be waived. The Minister needs to examine this issue. These people gave up so much during Covid. They gave up annual leave and gave up time with their families in order to provide childcare. They did everything. Surely in the coming weeks the Government can waive this payment, for one year only, as an acknowledgement of their work.

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