Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The two issues are separate. There is the question of vaccinations and the question of students and the allowances they should be paid. I know the Deputy and others are advocating that they become part of the paid workforce. The colleges are strongly opposed to that and are very worried about it. They believe the comparisons with the apprenticeship model could set the profession back decades. Comparisons have been made in this House with Australia, where they run an apprenticeship model and a graduate degree model. The opportunities available to the degree programme graduates are significantly better than those available to the apprenticeship graduates. A lot of the really exciting and important developments in the nursing and midwifery professions happening right now are because they are degree graduate students, including enhanced nurse practitioner specialist roles and so forth.

Specific to the issue at hand, it is clear policy of the HSE that all students get the vaccination for free. I would be very happy to look into cases of individuals who are coming to the Deputy. As Minister for Health, I very much want to know if any of our students, on their clinical placements, are being charged. I will act on it if that is the case.

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