Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support this motion. Nurses, student nurses and midwives have worked hard and deserve better. Their conditions are shocking, especially those of student nurses. I am inundated with emails on this issue from student nurses and their families. They work hard and pay their accommodation and student fees. They are front-line workers. Apparently the best thing the Government can do for them is to clap for them, pat them on the back and thank them. Empty promises and empty clapping are not delivery. The HSE has enough funds. It is top-heavy with managers. It should start dropping managers and direct some of that money to student nurses, who are paid little or nothing for the hard work they have done.

I pay tribute to nurses, who have worked very hard. Many nurses flew home from Australia, America and all over the world because their hearts and souls were in the job of protecting the people they had grown up with. They were very shoddily treated by this country. I pay tribute to the community hospitals in my own constituency at Schull, Castletownbere, Bantry, Dunmanway, Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Kinsale, and to all those working in nursing homes. Nurses and student nurses have worked tirelessly during this pandemic. I make particular reference to Bantry General Hospital.

Every Deputy here has mentioned the €100 registration fee. The Government could at least be seen to do something by waiving that fee. Even though €100 is a pittance, that would have shown respect. The Government should have left the clapping to us and focused on delivering for nurses and student nurses. They do not deserve to be treated like this.

We are losing patience with the HSE. The cross-border directive could be nearing its end and the Government is doing little or nothing about it. Instead it is trying to find ways to make cuts to services for ordinary people.

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