Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I brought in the nursing degree programme quite a number of years ago as Minister for Health and, if I say so myself, it was a transformative thing to do in how we educate nursing in this country and moved it on, by way of advanced nurse practitioners and postgraduate degrees, which has made a significant difference to our health system and the delivery of our health service. I am very keen therefore that we will continue to improve the situation for student nurses within the context of a degree programme within our universities and our institutes of technology. There was a deliberate decision at the time to ensure we had widespread provision across the regions for nurse education. The Minister yesterday would have referred to the measures he took last year in the context of Covid-19 which were important, significant and should not be dismissed. Likewise, in respect of the McHugh report, he is bringing those proposals to Cabinet and we want to take positive decisions on this and on the recommendations of that review which would create a longer term beneficial situation for student nurses.

See this speech in context