Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this very important issue. It is not the first time she has taken to her feet to raise this. A key Government priority is to protect the education of all students, including student nurses and midwives. Clinical placements account for 50% of the overall education programme requirements for student nurses and midwives and supporting students to undertake clinical placement remains a key priority for the Government. In early 2021 the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, directed a longer term review of matters relating to student nurses and midwives to be undertaken. He appointed Mr. Seán McHugh to carry out this important work. In November 2021 following consideration of the recommendations within the McHugh report, Government approved the Minister's interim proposals to provide significant additional supports, worth €12 million, to student nurses and midwives while attending their clinical placements.

For supernumerary students these proposals extended the pandemic placement grant, PPG, of €100 per week to all eligible nursing and midwifery students on placement for this academic year backdated to September 2021. In addition, the McHugh report sets out recommendations to enhance the current travel and subsistence scheme for students in attending their supernumerary clinical placements. The Minister will consider these further so that a permanent enhanced scheme can be developed that will provide a targeted and more equitable approach to supporting students in undertaking supernumerary clinical placements, to be in place from September 2022.

In the meantime the Minister has doubled the weekly cap on vouched accommodation allowance to €100 per week of placement for supernumerary students needing overnight accommodation away from their normal place of residence in order to attend some of their clinical placements, which is also backdated to September 2021.

In regard to internship students on rostered placement, work is ongoing to progress other recommendations within the McHugh report, including increasing the salary of intern students to 80% of the staff nurse salary. In the meantime we are providing student nurses and midwives on paid internship placement with additional support of €50 per week of placement, amounting to €1,800 in total. This is for the duration of their internship and is with effect from January 2022, the same date as paid internships for the current academic year began.

To go to the nub of the Senator's question, on 22 January 2022 the Department issued sanction to the HSE regarding these additional supports and requested that payment be prioritised. Yesterday the Department was informed by the HSE that it is finalising a memo to be issued to services to provide for payment. As part of this process the draft communication has been shared with representative groups. After the memo is finalised and issued, the HSE has confirmed payment will follow the normal lead in time for routine payment cycles which I believe is fortnightly. The Department has once again emphasised to the HSE the importance of expediting these payments.

In conclusion the Department has also commenced its work on the recommendations from the McHugh report that are applicable to the next academic year, and in this regard the Minister intends to bring a detailed proposal to Government in due course.