Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The best protest placard of the year outside Dáil Éireann was held by a student nurse today. It stated, "Why are nurses priceless but penniless?" It is a brilliant placard.

The Minister has left the room but he needed to read the room because he has got it wrong on student nurses' pay. He must stop, look and listen and he needs to make some changes. Students are going back into hospitals, working in Covid-19 wards and other wards with Covid-19 patients. The numbers in intensive care units and hospitals will increase. Could they double or treble? Already the system is leaning heavily and relying on those student nurses, and that will increase in the days and weeks ahead.

The Minister proposes to extend the €100 per week payment for first, second and third year student nurses and increase the pay of fourth year interns by 12.5%. That is not enough and it does not take account of the fact these student nurses are wearing personal protective equipment, PPE, or the financial pressures that have come on them on the back of the pandemic. There are students with vulnerable immunocompromised parents or siblings at home who had to move out and pay rent while rental costs are so high, as we know. Some have had to give up a part-time job because they cannot go from working in a Covid-19 ward straight to a part-time job. They do that to protect their workmates.

The payment is €100 per week for those in first, second and third year, which equates to €2.50 per hour or less than a quarter of the minimum wage. It is an insult and these students should be paid the healthcare assistant rate. They were paid that rate at the start of the pandemic and that should be done again now. The other figure is the 12.5% for those in fourth year. The key figure is not 12.5% but 20%, as they are being paid 20% less than first-year qualified nurses. They should be paid the same rate and that should be done now.

This is really a no-brainer and practically everyone in society agrees with the points I make. The people who are completely out of kilter are the Minister and the members of his Government. They need to read the room and change the policy.

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