Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my party colleague, Deputy Cullinane, on tabling this motion. It is a disgrace that we are here again debating student nurses and midwives getting paid. I raised this matter in the Dáil last March. It took us weeks before we could get the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to acknowledge the work that student nurses and midwives were doing on the front line. He put in place a payment for them. The then Taoiseach also recognised that student nurses were working on the front line. Fast forward a number of months and we got a new Taoiseach and Minister for Health.

I do not want to be in here arguing with the Minister. We want to be constructive and supportive. That is why I am pleading with him. If he understands the health system and acknowledges and respects the work that student nurses and midwives are doing, for the love of God, why are we not putting in place a fair payment for their work? I have been in hospital in recent months and I have seen at first hand the work that these people are doing. For the Government not to respect them and acknowledge their work is shameful.

I spoke to a student nurse. I will give the House a sense of the situation for a student nurse in UCC. I spoke to a girl who went back as a mature student to become a nurse. She lives in Glanmire. She travels to the Bon Secours Hospital, but because it is next to UCC, she gets no travel allowance.

Another girl from Glanmire travels to Cork University Hospital, CUH, but the travel allowance is only calculated from UCC to CUH so she is getting €15 a week. A young woman who is a student nurse contacted me. During the summer, before the payment came in, she was travelling from Ballyhea to Bantry.

As the Minister said, we are talking about backdating the payment. We need to respect the student workforce and finally to resolve this issue. There is so much more I could say. There are so many stories about what nurses are actually doing. For the love of God, it is time now for the Minister to bite the bullet. If he really respected student nurses, he would deliver for them.

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