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

I thank all those Deputies who rose to support the motion tabled by People Before Profit and Solidarity in support of the students and midwives and our call that they should have the healthcare assistant rate they were given earlier in the pandemic restored and that, more generally, they need to be paid for their placements because it is work, not simply education. The fact that they have to pay fees for the privilege of being exploited on the wards and while working on the front line, not just during the Covid pandemic but, more generally, while playing a role in holding our entire health service together on an ongoing basis, is an absolute scandal.

I do not say it lightly, but the absence of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, from the Chamber during a debate about thousands of student nurses and midwives who have protected us all, put themselves in harm's way and fought on the front line during this pandemic is nothing short of an insult. The speeches of the Ministers of State, Deputies Rabbitte and Butler, which were almost in the realm of fantasy in terms of depicting the reality of the work of student nurses and midwives and their role in the health service, were an insult. The amendment tabled by the Government is an insult. It all really exposes as the purest hypocrisy and as totally hollow and disingenuous all of the applause and praise the Government parties heaped upon student nurses and midwives earlier in the pandemic.

The decision to refuse the request of student nurses and midwives to pay them for their work has shown that the applause and praise meant nothing. It is a direct breach of a promise and commitment made by the Taoiseach on 20 October. I raised this issue with him on foot of conversations with Phil Ní Sheaghdha of the INMO, who brought it to my attention, and then with thousands of student nurses and midwives who contacted me and with whom I have held Zoom meetings and so on. I raised the matter with the Taoiseach and said it was completely unacceptable that the healthcare assistant rate that was given to student nurses and midwives in the early part of the pandemic - under pressure, it has to be said, from the student nurses and midwives and their unions and so on - was being removed. The Taoiseach agreed that it should be restored. He has since rolled back on that promise.

The Government amendment provides outrageous excuses for breaking that commitment and refusing to pay student nurses and midwives and show them the respect they deserve. The arguments put forward by the Government in the amendment are threadbare. They could be summed up as stating that the Government's refusal to make this payment is justified on the grounds that Covid is not as bad as it was in the early period of the pandemic and that the Government is protecting nurses' education. It is almost Orwellian doublespeak to suggest that is why the Government is not paying them. The amendment states this is justified by the great improvements the Government is apparently making in staffing levels in hospitals as well as supposedly reducing the dependence on student nurses and midwives to hold wards and healthcare settings together. Of course, the other excuse is the wonderful opportunities that exist for student nurses as a result of reforms and improvements the Government has made.

Rather than going through why I think the Government amendment is nonsense, disingenuous, hypocritical and fanciful, I would like to speak about Zara, who is one of the hundreds of people who have written to me or attended meetings as part of our recent "Behind the masks" online campaign. She read the Government amendment and her response to it covers most of the points I would seek to make on it. She states that the point the Government is making in the amendment is an absolute joke. She is a second year general nursing student who just finished a two-month placement last week. While she was on her placement, she and one staff nurse were responsible for 12 patients on multiple days. The ward did not bring in a healthcare assistant to work in the area as there was a student there. She states that to say there is safe staffing and that the Government is protecting the education of student nurses and midwives is an absolute joke. She makes that point that they are expected to work with Covid patients for free. While she was on placement, three wards in the hospital had Covid outbreaks and were shut down. Approximately 100 staff had tested positive for Covid in the hospital and her ward was turned into a Covid ward. She believes it is laughable for the Government to insinuate that because there are fewer hospitalisations now than in the first wave, there is no risk involved in student nurses and midwives working with Covid every day for their education. She also points out that most student nurses and midwives do not even get the miserable €50 allowance for accommodation which, in any event, would not go next or near to covering the cost of accommodation. As one student nurse put it, it literally would not cover the cost of a cardboard box.

I would like to refer to another heart-rending story of the many that I received. I will not mention a name in this case, which involves a lone parent with four children who had been homeless during her training. She did her unpaid placement in her third year, during Covid. She had to give up her job to do that placement and has subsequently had to drop out of her nursing course because of the cost of fees. She also got Covid-19. This is just scandalous. It is shocking beyond belief.

Áine, another student nurse, has said that they are not there purely for education. She has spoken of how they work 13-hour days as part of a team, taking on their own caseloads to cover staff shortages. She suggests that if those in government set foot in any public HSE hospital in Ireland, they would see that for themselves. She argues that student nurses and midwives should not be used to replace staff nurses if they are not being paid. The stories go on and on. I do not know who wrote the speeches of the Ministers of State but, as Áine said, it is clear that the person in question is either uninformed or is deliberately misrepresenting what is going on in hospitals not just during Covid but all of the time, including pre-Covid, in terms of the roles that student nurses and midwives are playing.

During one of the online meetings I had with the student nurses and midwives, Sarah said that when she is finished her training she would not work for the HSE in a fit. She said that she is leaving. One after another, the nurses and midwives echoed that sentiment. The point was borne out by a survey carried out by the INMO in 2018. More than 70% of the student nurses who took part in the survey said they intended or were likely to leave because of the terrible conditions and the experience of burnout. They also pointed to the direct impact of the work that is imposed on them during their education as contributing to that burnout, as well as the conditions they have to face as nurses when they are qualified.

Deputy Kelly referred to the emails that have been received today regarding the €100 registration fee for the NMBI. For nurses and midwives to be again asked, in the midst of a pandemic, to pay for the privilege of going in and working on the front line, endangering their health, is truly an insult. Is it any wonder that there was an enormous strike by nurses and midwives over the issue of the inability of the HSE to retain nurses and midwives who we need desperately? In the face of the pandemic, we need them now more than ever, but they are leaving in their droves because of the terrible conditions they face. Student nurses and midwives have to pay from €3,000 in fees, and up to €7,500 if they have previously done another degree, for the privilege of being exploited. It is shocking.

As many student nurses have pointed out, there is no doubt that if this was a majority male profession, they would not be treated in this way. There is a deep gender bias in this treatment of student nurses and midwives and their exploitation and it has to end.

I can tell the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who is present, that the Government and the Government parties have engendered the fury of tens of thousands of nurses and midwives, as well as their healthcare colleagues, over the treatment of healthcare workers and student nurses and midwives during Covid and more generally, as well as over this insulting amendment. I appeal to the Government to withdraw the amendment.

12 o’clock

The Government must end this exploitation by paying students nurses and midwives what they deserve for the critical role they play. I ask the Government to treat our healthcare workers properly and stop making them pay for the privilege of providing a service to our society and our health system by imposing extortionate fees on them.

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