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

Since the Government voted down the Solidarity-People Before Profit motion calling for the payment of student nurses and midwives, I and student nurses and midwives have listened with fury to the Taoiseach's lame, dishonest and unacceptable excuses in respect of the decision the Government made. There is an interesting all-Ireland dimension to the hypocrisy around treatment of our front-line workers, such as student nurses and midwives. The following is from an elected representative on this island:

It’s only fair and right that our student nurses are properly recognised and recompensed for the service to our communities during this pandemic.  Right across the city we have Covid patients being tended to by NHS staff and their student nurse colleagues.  The Health Minister must recognise their efforts at the most challenging of times with fair and proper wages.

That is a quote from a Green Party councillor, who would have voted in the election for the Greens to enter Government down here and in the party's leadership election. That is stunning hypocrisy. A party with which the Taoiseach is allied marched into the Dáil last week and voted against paying student nurses and midwives; the same party, in the North, is calling for their payment and saying it is due recognition for the work they have done on the Covid front line. What does the Taoiseach think about that? Even people who are aligned to the Government call for the payment of student nurses and midwives in the North. Yet the Taoiseach comes out with lame, dishonest and unacceptable excuses for doing the exact opposite down here and covering over the disgraceful decision not to pay student nurses and midwives. We will rebut these excuses one by one in the next question in this session.

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