Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the short-term review, we are conducting it because that is what the representative bodies asked for. We are finalising that review now. We are also looking at a longer-term review of student placements generally, but the representative bodies asked for very quick action. They asked that any Covid-19-related allowances, if there is to be an increase, would be in place by January. That is what they have asked for, and therefore that is what is being done.

On the payment of a wage, I will refer to what some educators have said. They are concerned about what looks like a push to turn a successful graduate degree profession into an apprenticeship model, which is the case in Germany and some other places around the world. Some comments included references to the fact that if student nurses and midwives are paid and treated as workers, they will not be exposed to the learning they need. It was also stated that they will be doing lower-skilled tasks and that this is not a degree education. It was further stated that it is important that people understand that placement of student nurses is the same as placement for any other clinical student or healthcare student and that what is being suggested by calls to pay student nurses will set the profession back 50 years. Very serious allegations regarding what is happening on the placements have been made. I assure the Deputy and the House that I am taking these deadly seriously. I have instigated a full review and I am meeting the directors of nursing this evening regarding this issue.

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