Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. We understood the memo had very recently gone out. The review is extremely welcome and I urge the Minister to enact these recommendations with haste. It is all well and good that this is going to be sorted out soon. I note there is no set date yet. It is still somewhat in the hopefully not-too-distant future, which will bring student nurses and midwives some comfort but it will not help them backdate anything. Backdated payments are all well and good if you can afford to have a backdated payment. However, landlords are not going to take backdated rent, Vodafone will not take a backdated bill, and Tesco is not going to take a backdated payment for groceries. I am sure the Minister of State understands how deeply frustrating this is for students nurses and midwives. They go in every single day and do their absolute best and they are exhausted.They are wrecked. The pandemic payment is a small payment and it immensely frustrating for those student nurses and midwives. My phone is literally hopping in front of me with people asking when they are getting this, on which date and what is happening. We cannot have stuff backdated all the time. I hope that this can be sorted very quickly.