Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Members who brought the motion before the House. As a Deputy living in and representing Galway East, I have received many letters and emails from student nurses and midwives and their parents and families, brothers and sisters, because we are simply doing something that is wrong. Many of the nurses who have contacted me are young people. They are the youth of our country and our future. They took on the career of nursing because they are young, bright and brave. They want to contribute to our society and to our health service. They are also human and at risk of getting Covid-19. What do we do? We treat them with disrespect, and in a way that says they are different, but they are no different from any other child or young person in the country. They should be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. They have to pay for student fees if they do not qualify for grants. They must pay for accommodation if their placement is elsewhere. They must pay for the cost of that and the expense of their travel to work. We all know this - the Minister and the Minister of State know it, and the Government knows it. We need to do the right thing. A fourth year apprentice carpenter receives 80% of the full-time rate of a qualified person. I ask the Minister to research that and examine the calculations of that. At the same time, we treat these student nurses with so much disrespect. If we are to retain these people and they are to have respect in government, politics and the health service, we need to ensure we treat them with dignity.

Sometimes the Government can hide behind precedent. We know that precedent has gone out the window with Covid. It is gone because if we have learned anything it is that we have made a call on Ireland to come together and to work together. We are all in this together and the student nurses and midwives need to be there too. We must ensure we treat them with the dignity they deserve.

I ask the Minister of State to tell the Minister for Health to pay the €100 NMBI registration fee as a small token of thanks to all the nurses who have done so much since the outbreak of the pandemic, and will continue to do so. It is a small investment in our future and shows a small bit of respect for the nurses.

I will conclude by referring to the healthcare workers who are paid under section 39. These fully qualified people are working but are not being properly paid. This is another disgrace that we have allowed to exist in society.

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