Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I express our gratitude to those in the nursing profession and healthcare workers who kept us all safe in this terrible time. Those in the nursing profession, not only in Ireland but across the world, have never been as challenged. They lost colleagues in a battle to protect all of us. Over the past 17 to 18 months, many things have changed, some for the good and some for the bad. We have seen how the vocation of nursing has been undervalued in Ireland, especially student nurses. That was exposed last year regarding student nurses in a placement not getting paid. That needs to be addressed immediately or else nurses who are highly qualified will graduate and leave this country. We do not want that situation. These people are highly motivated and highly skilled and want to work in our health system. However, they are burnt out. Not all nurses want to do that, but a minority want to leave because of pay and conditions.

The Minister can fix that through recognition, respect and remuneration, which is very important for student nurses on work placement. We spoke to them outside the gates of Leinster House today. They are highly motivated and doing an extremely difficult job but they feel they are not being paid for the work they do. All they are asking is that when they are on placement for 18 weeks in second year or third year, they get recognition for travel costs or something. That will go a long way to recognising the profession. The nursing vocation is in its golden age. There has never been so much interest in this country. There is an oversupply of people applying for nursing courses through the CAO, indicating that a large number of people are interested in this. The Government needs to look after them, and once it looks after them, they will look after all of us.

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