Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

In six minutes or so, the Minister of State will stand up and explain why the Government does not think that student nurses should be paid. She might say that they should not be paid to protect their education, but before she does, I would like her to listen to the words of a student nurse who has been on the front line of the fight against Covid-19. Ms Maeve Evans is a student nurse from Dublin South-West. She wrote to me and explained:

To choose a life of becoming a nurse or midwife is not easy. Many of us have worked throughout Ireland's first wave of Covid-19 when it struck our acute hospitals and various other healthcare facilities. We helped out in our already struggling healthcare system and yes, we were given a round of applause then, but now we are being hushed.

I worked as a Health Care Assistant for 12 weeks in a nursing home during the pandemic under the HSE student nurse contract. I was offered little to no supports and genuinely found this traumatising. I had to start anti-anxiety medications and seek mental health treatment after this experience.

I currently get 25 euro per week during my placement. This amounts to about 65 cents per hour worked.

I love nursing, trust me I would have dropped out by now if I didn't. But the way we are treated and valued right now is embarrassing. I am embarrassed that our government values us so little.

It is time to stop hushing these front-line workers. The Minister of State should agree to treat Maeve, and all student nurses, with respect. She should agree to pay student nurses a decent, living wage.

We were told by then Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, that "not all heroes wear capes" but when it came to the student nurses fighting Covid-19, it seems that this Government believes that not all heroes deserve pay. That is perhaps part of the usefulness of the hero narrative. They are heroes rather than workers. Superman, Batman, Spiderman or whoever else does not have to be paid. It is a disgrace that this Government expects thousands of student nurses and midwives to work for free in our hospitals. The reality is that our hospitals are completely dependent on these front-line workers. They are putting their health and lives at risk to care for those in need.

The least they should get is a living wage but instead of being paid by this Government, they are expected to pay thousands of euro to the colleges for the privilege of working in our hospitals. In the past, many of them had to work a part-time job on top of working in our hospitals in order to make ends meet but due to Covid-19, they are not allowed to do that for fear of catching and spreading the virus. How then, are they supposed to survive? It is time to scrap the fees for these student nurses and pay them a living wage for their work.

It is interesting that in March, the Government recognised that student nurses deserve to be paid. Under pressure from the unions and the left, the Government offered them the healthcare assistant rate of €14 per hour but that plan was quickly scrapped. The Government is trying to return to the normal scenario of relying on their free labour. Many students are getting nothing and some tell me they get an allowance of €50 per week or so, a rate which amounts to €1.36 per hour. Even the fourth years are only getting minimum wage or less, despite doing skilled work in difficult conditions.

It is worth comparing and contrasting the treatment of student nurses with the treatment of Deputies and Ministers. A Deputy can get a travel and accommodation allowance of up to €650 per week on top of a bloated salary, while student nurses are told they are lucky to get €75 per week in allowances. How on earth can the Government justify this? What exactly is a student nurse who is working away from home supposed to do with a €50 per week accommodation allowance? It is an insult. I imagine that if the Minister of State was told that her accommodation allowance was being cut to €50 per week, she would be up in arms. Why is she not up in arms about the treatment of student nurses? Instead of these insulting allowances, we have to recognise the work that is done by student nurses and pay them a living wage.

We know, and it has been referred to, that over 3,000 healthcare workers got Covid-19. Nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants and student nurses literally put themselves in harm's way in order to help to fight the virus but they did not get the support they needed. Even to this day, the INMO is saying there is not full health and safety protection for student nurses. In particular, it highlights the need for payment if one has to go on Covid-related leave. It is time to listen to the nurses and other front-line workers and provide the support and protections that they need. In reality, it is part and parcel of a Government approach of tackling Covid-19 on the cheap, of doing healthcare on the cheap and of underfunding our public health service as part of promoting a two-tier health service.

I was recently contacted by junior doctors in Tallaght University Hospital who say they are doing shifts of 24 hours or more every weekend at the moment. They say that when the shift change is meant to happen in the morning, the staff simply are not available and it is those who have worked all evening who then have to do the new admissions, which could be 20 people per day. There is a real consequence to refusing to fund a public health service, which includes funding testing, tracing and isolating in terms of Covid-19. We are experiencing our inadequate public health service. As part of trying to build a properly funded, one-tier quality national health service, we must agree to pay the student nurses now.

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