Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too thank Deputy Cullinane for bringing forward this motion. It is often said that nursing is a vocation, but this pandemic has proven this much more. I have been contacted by many student nurses over recent months and the stories I have heard are shocking. Many student nurses work for free during the day and then work nights and weekends as care staff to pay for their fees and expenses while they are on placement. While they work in hospitals they might receive up to €50 per week if their placement is far enough away from their university. This is not enough to cover bus fares and lunches, let alone other expenses. Our student nurses are burnt out and this Government has the cheek to say they do not do real work. They have held the hands of the sick, the lonely and, sadly, now, the dying.

I sometimes get anxious when I see the number of cases, which is high at the moment. Our death toll is particularly high. Although I have heard many harrowing stories, I can only imagine how anxious those on the front line must feel. On top of that, they have to worry about passing on the virus to their loved ones, all the while trying to make ends meet. One student nurse told me recently that while helping a patient to shower, the patient's toe came off in his sock. The student nurse was on her own and could not leave the patient alone. She had to finish the patient's shower and then find a nurse to seek help. I ask the House to imagine that and to imagine she does not get paid for that. Another student nurse told me how they were left alone, without care staff, to dress and lay out a deceased patient to give the person a little dignity in death.

The Government thinks that the nurses do not deserve to be paid.

Many families have also been in contact and have told me about the difference that our student nurses are making. One family told me of the lengths to which one of these student nurses went, by staying behind after work to help a patient to unlock a phone SIM card that had somehow become blocked. The student nurse restored the family's only way of communicating with their father because no visits were allowed and they had not seen their father since he had been recently diagnosed with cancer. As far as this family is concerned, these nurses are angels.

Finally, I commend the work of the Muiríosa Foundation, based in Moore Abbey in Monasterevin in County Kildare. It has a long and proud history in assisting service users and their families in the area of intellectual disability. Each year, their students undertake 70 placements. They and all of our student nurses need proper pay and terms and conditions. We do not want any more token gestures or false promises. Enough is enough. It is time to do the right thing and it is time to pay our student nurses. I ask all Members to support this motion.

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