Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There are pay increases for judges, pension cuts reversed for ex-taoisigh and 4,000 top civil servants but still no pay for student nurses and midwives. I agree with the Fianna Fáil Deputy for Cork East who stated yesterday that this may do lasting damage to his party.

The Taoiseach spoke firmly earlier against paying student nurses but the point is student nurses are working in our hospitals. They will tell him that themselves. Does he doubt them? Even if they were in an apprentice-type arrangement, as he says he would like to see the situation, they would still be on the front line risking their health with the Covid situation and would deserve something in return for that.

The Taoiseach did not comment on two suggestions put forward by Solidarity-PPP Deputies and by the student nurses themselves, that, as a token of appreciation for putting themselves in harm's way and the work they have done, their student fees would be waived or that a generous bursary could be granted to them. I would like if he could address those points in his reply.

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