Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House. I congratulate my colleagues in the Labour Party on introducing this excellent, simple and straightforward Bill. This issue really should not be occupying our time because it should have been sorted out long before now. It is about fair, reasonable and sustainable rates of pay and allowances. This issue was first raised with the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, by Sinn Féin on the floor of the Dáil in July 2020. A Sinn Féin motion before the Dáil last month calling for payment of student nurses was passed. Despite other political action by the Opposition as well, this action still has to be fought for. This is an issue which should not divide us. This House should be united on this matter, and, indeed, it appears today that we are united. I urge the Minister to act on this united message.

I state that because, unfortunately, it is clear to date that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party have not yet recognised the role of student nurses and the value they provide. An allowance of €100 per week for first, second and third year student nurses and midwives has quite rightly been regarded as a slap in the face and far from adequate. It is not fair and reasonable. My union, SIPTU, has stated it fully supports the demand for the recognition of the role undertaken by all students within the health system during this pandemic and "the proposal that it should amount to a payment of €100 a week falls well short of what is needed".

Let us compare and contrast this €100 with the decision made in the halls of power in this State last month to give the incoming head of the Department of Health a pay rise of €81,000. I refer not to a salary of €81,000 but to a pay rise of that amount, which brings the salary of the individual concerned close to €300,000 a year. As I recall, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, justified this on the basis of ensuring quality. If that ensures quality, he is obviously not in any way interested in quality for front-line essential workers. It is quite scandalous and it tells us much more about where this Government places value, which is at the very top of society, when we have heroes working on the front line not getting any pay. It is a scandalous situation.

The INMO has stated that student nurses "are thanked for their work so far but the thanks ring hollow when their reasonable demands for fair remuneration go unanswered". Student nurses have the miraculous ability to survive on good intentions. I wonder could the new head of the Department of Health survive on these platitudes and such praise. It would save the State a fortune if he did. Student nurses are required to complete 35 hours of work a week over three to four days. The day starts at 7:30 a.m. for handover, where students get patients out of bed and take their vital signs. The rest of the day includes making beds, dressing patients, washing them and assisting them in going to the toilet.

In December, I read the story of Áine Murphy, a third year general nursing student at the University of Limerick. Since September, she has been working as an unpaid nurse on placement in University Hospital Limerick. Ms Murphy has been quoted as saying:

We are out on the front line. We are there every morning at the crack of dawn making sure your loved one is okay. We are risking ourselves with the possibility of getting COVID-19. Some of us have had to move away from home for work and don’t go home or see our elderly relatives for fear that we may have it and pass it on.

How we treat those in healthcare really reflects the type of society we have and the place we have for professions that help and heal those most in need. Our health service was not in a good place before this pandemic. I could see it with the daily trolley figures in the University Hospital, Limerick, which often had the highest numbers in the State.

The Government needs to give a clear and direct message to student nurses and midwives that we want them to stay here working in the Irish healthcare system, not emigrating, that we value and respect the work they do on a daily basis and that there is a future here in a well-funded, modern public healthcare system.