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

What is at the core of this, in reality, is a health service and a hospital system that is creaking at the seams. What is at the core of this is the fact that student nurses and midwives are very often the glue that keeps that system together and keeps the show on the road. What is also at the core of this, put very plainly, is a group of professionals in training working 13-hour shifts and not getting paid. It is as simple as that. The Taoiseach can deflect, divert and point the finger wherever he wishes but he is the Head of Government and this is now a very real problem for these students, for their families, and potentially, for the healthcare system itself. The Taoiseach is now saying that they should be paid. Is he in agreement with me that individuals working 13-hour shifts should be paid? He has stated that. The question then is why they are not being paid and what the Government is going to do to ensure that they are. I ask the Taoiseach not to take us off on a tangent with a discussion more generally around nurse education. Nobody is proposing to go back to the apprenticeship model. What we are strongly stating is that this work is being done and needs to be recognised, valued and paid.

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