Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Throughout the course of 2020 and this pandemic we have seen nurses and midwives doing an extraordinary job in our health service, as indeed have all healthcare workers, including doctors, therapists, cleaners, porters, people working in our laboratories and people working in administration, without whom no front-line worker could do his or her job. It has been an excellent and professional job. It is not fair to say that they have been taken for granted. We have seen a very significant increase in staffing levels across our health service to respond to the pandemic. There have also been two pay rises this year, albeit modest ones, in March and in October. In most cases, workers in the public health service would have received a third pay rise in 2020 in the form of an increment.

There are many students in Ireland. The vast majority of students in Ireland do not get paid, including teaching students. Exceptions are made, for example for gardaí in training and for apprentices. Indeed, nurses are among those exceptions and among the few students who are paid. They are paid for their preregistration year, in recognition of the fact that the work they do then is unsupervised and would have to be done and paid for if they did not do it. As the House will be aware, nursing and midwifery students are required to complete 45 weeks of training in total across years one, two and three and for a semester in year four. This is a supernumerary clinical placement that they do to meet the standards and to complete courses. Supernumerary clinical placement is the optimal clinical learning environment. This places students on the front line in a learning capacity as an addition to the workforce. It is fully supervised for certain periods of the year during each year of training. This ensures that students can safely learn, observe and take part in a wide variety of clinical skills acquisition required for qualification.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and students have raised a number of issues around loss of income due to fewer opportunities for part-time work during the pandemic, particularly in nursing homes, together with HR issues in respect of difficulties with rosters, and issues also around overall student well-being, including the increased risk of getting Covid-19 which is a real concern for all of us.

The matter of student pay is also being considered. A review of student allowances is under way and will be completed shortly. It is intended that this outcome, once negotiated with the unions, will take effect from September 2021.

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