James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with this Adjournment matter, which concerns physiotherapy students from around the country, at least two of whom come from my area of Longford-Westmeath. Given that payments are made to trainee nurses in similar circumstances, why are physiotherapy students, who undertake valuable work, not paid while on work placements? I call on the Minister of State to make some commitment to provide extra funding to hospitals to cover such payments. While we are not talking about significant sums of money, it is important that the funds come from the Department of Health and Children rather than the hospitals taking the trainees. Each year, approximately 150 trainee physiotherapy students begin their training in this country. The students undertake 1,000 hours of work placement in their third and fourth years of study. They provide an excellent support service to hospitals, working hard to clear backlogs of patients for no monetary reward. In many cases, they or their parents have to pay additional living expenses in terms of bed and breakfast accommodation near placement hospitals. They also have to pay for meals and travel costs.

A further financial burden is put on these students because, unlike their peers in other disciplines who finish college at the end of May, they are unable to take summer employment to pay for the next college year. Many have placement hours scheduled over the summer months and even those who finish before the beginning of the autumn term find that all the vacancies for summer jobs have been filled.

Trainee nurses earn 80% of the first point on the basic nursing pay scale when they undertake work placements during their studies. I am aware of trainee engineers who are paid generously during their work experience. It seems the scales are harshly weighted against trainee physiotherapists and I wonder why this is so, given that a relatively small level of funding to hospitals would eliminate this anomaly. If hospitals had to pay trainee physiotherapists from their already limited funds, many would be unable to offer places. However, in light of the valuable work done by the students, any funds provided to hospitals would be amply repaid.

The students' prospects on qualification are not necessarily rosy. There is a lack of job opportunities in this country for this discipline and graduates often have difficulties in finding employment. Strangely, the website of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment points to a shortage in the number of physiotherapists and offers work opportunities to qualified non-EU professionals. That is a contradictory position.

I urge the Minister of State to help these dedicated students and their hard-pressed parents by providing a small sum to offset the financial difficulties they experience. I have been approached by two students from my constituency on this matter, one from Athlone and the other from Longford.