Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This is a very important debate. It is worth pointing out that the approximately 4,000 student nurses and midwives are female in the main. The value of work done by women has been historically undervalued and there is a gender pay gap, as we all know.This may be why there has been a reluctance for so long to deal with the issue of pay for student nurses. Ógra Fianna Fáil ran a campaign on the payment of student nurses. I have spoken to them about the campaign and it is one I am in agreement with.

I have spoken to many student nurses over recent months. They recalled the very difficult situations, work environments and work practices they are now dealing with. When the majority of those students put nursing on their CAO forms, they did not expect to be working like this and in these circumstances. They are dealing with death, stress, falling ill, their colleagues falling ill, and the ever-evolving pandemic situation. The majority of these student nurses are 18 to 20 years old. My colleague, Deputy Lahart, has said that if this virus is a war situation, the student nurses are the conscripts and we should be paying them.

I have heard from student nurses about their difficult living conditions in shared accommodation and the stress of trying to self-isolate, including the effect this has on their relationships with their housemates. The student nurses are working in very Covid-sensitive environments. Due to reduced public transport services, they have had to get private transport.

I have heard the argument that student nurses are on work placements like many other third level students. I believe that in the current situation, they are not the same as other students on work placements from college. Other students have not faced the very difficult situations the student nurses and student midwives have faced. I have also heard the argument from many nurses and other senior people in the profession that they are very conscious of the strides that have been made in the past 20 years in professionalising the sector. I understand where they are coming from. I am eager that the professionalisation of their profession would remain and that the aims they work towards would continue. I feel, however, that an ex gratiapayment for a defined 12-month period would be the happy medium. It would give the student nurses and student midwives the support they need at the moment, while respecting the professionalism of nursing and respecting the model that nurses fought so very hard to achieve, and without setting back the profession. I believe we can come up with a creative solution. The student nurses I have spoken to are very eager that the professional model is maintained.

We need to come up with something. How we treat student nurses and student midwives now will reflect on their attitude towards the Irish health service. It will help to inform their decisions when they graduate with their degrees in a few years' time. Ireland has a shortage of nurses and midwives. We are the fastest growing country in Europe and we need to recruit more healthcare staff. It would be far more cost-effective to pay student nurses now and not engage down the line in trying to recruit people from abroad with expensive campaigns to attract Irish nurses and nurses of other nationalities back to these shores to deal with our very young population and our ageing population.

I hope that some middle ground can be found here that respects the integrity of the profession, acknowledges the situation we are in and acknowledges the very difficult situation faced by the 4,000 student nurses and student midwives.