Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On several occasions now, I have raised with the Taoiseach his refusal to pay student nurses and midwives. His decision has been met with understandable anger, not just from the students themselves but also from the public. Last Thursday, I met online with student nurses and midwives from all over the country. They shared with me their experiences and recounted the very real work they do in our hospitals. Their kindness, professionalism and dedication to nursing is in sharp contrast to the shoddy way they are being treated by the Taoiseach's Government. They are angry at the Taoiseach's suggestion that their nursing colleagues are exploiting them. They are livid, in fact, that the Taoiseach deflects from his refusal to pay them by blaming other nurses. They said to me how dare anyone, especially the Taoiseach, suggest they are being abused or exploited by other nurses. They say that the Taoiseach is the exploiter.

Nurses in hospitals are facing overcrowding, a lack of staff and stressful conditions, and this is the result of decades of bad Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy. Student nurses walk onto those same wards and they do what comes naturally to them. They say it would go against every fibre of their being not to help patients in distress or relieve pressure on their colleagues when a ward is incredibly busy. They say that the only abuse and exploitation here is the Taoiseach's Government's persistent refusal to pay them. Other nurses are not to blame, so I ask the Taoiseach to drop that nonsense.

This is about the values of his Government. Its treatment of student nurses and midwives demonstrates again that the Taoiseach's chaotic Government is completely out of touch. The appalling lack of fairness is there for all to see. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have no problem showing up for their friends, and no problem whatsoever looking after those at the top. I refer to the developers, the big landlords and super junior Ministers and former taoisigh. Their hands are not tied then.

For student nurses and midwives, it is tea and sympathy, a round of applause and Government sends them back onto the wards with their pockets empty.

The Government just does not seem to get it. Student nurses did not just step into the breach at the start of this pandemic; they have always been in the breach. They have been doing the real work for years, but now because of Covid they have had to give up their part-time jobs which paid their bills and rent and helped them to cover the cost of attending college. Some have told me that, after their 13-hour shift, the first thing they do is go to the break room and cry, not only because nursing is tough but because they are broke and struggling to get by. Yet, they wipe their eyes, they get up the next day and they go back to doing it all over again. Student nurses and midwives show up every day for all of us and it is now time for the Government to show up for them.

Will the Taoiseach finally do the right thing? Will he tell them that they will be paid? Make no mistake; this is what the entire country expects him to do.

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