Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To reiterate, on 26 January 2022, just under a month ago, the Department issued the 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. The Department has, once again, emphasised to the HSE the importance of expediting these payments. The Senator is quite right. It is exactly as she said. They are student nurses and they have been guaranteed this payment. It needs to happen very quickly.

In conclusion, I just want to make some additional remarks. I want to inform the House that the overwhelming majority of student nurses and midwives have availed of the Covid vaccination, which has been a significant contributing factor to ensuring that clinical placements have continued with minimal disruption. I want to commend all student nurses and midwives in this regard.

Second, to ensure that appropriate oversight of support is in place for students, the clinical placement oversight group has remained in place and reports to the chief nursing officer in the Department.

I will again raise the Senator's issue. We are nearly there but nearly is not good enough. They need their back money and I do appreciate that.