Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to reference the student nurses and midwives who are outside Leinster House with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, supported by the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland, PNA, SIPTU and Fórsa, about student nurses and midwives' pay, which is an issue that I ever so briefly mentioned in the House previously. We are back at it again. There have been hints in the media that some of this will be resolved and that students in their fourth year internships are to receive an increase in their payments, but those are just media reports and there is no clarity. My understanding is that the report has been with the Minister since 12 August. By any measure of industrial relations issues, that is a long time for a report to be sitting when there is an outstanding dispute. The Leader wrote to the Minister previously on behalf of the Seanad. Will she engage with him again to ask for the report to be released and for unions to have access to it so that they can have a reasonable amount of time to assess it?

There have been other media reports today to the effect that there may be an extension of the €100 per week pandemic placement grant. Given that this payment ceased last September, first, second and third year students who are still working in pandemic conditions are not receiving any recognition of or pay for their work. Given that 3,000 healthcare staff are out at the moment, there is no doubt that what student nurses and midwives are doing on hospital wards is work. It is disappointing that that payment was ceased. Whether it will be reintroduced is one matter, but it should not have been cut off.

Last February, I proposed a Bill on this matter. There was no opposition to it and everyone stood up and said that he or she supported our student nurses and midwives. It is frustrating that student nurses and midwives who have been working on the front line are once again outside Leinster House calling for a resolution to this issue and for a bit of respect, decency and fairness. That is not too much to ask for. Will the Leader please write to the Minister?