Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent)
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480. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding the graduate nurse scheme, where newly qualified nurses in the midlands region are receiving 85% salary during their first year of employment while, graduates in other regions are receiving 100% salary; when it is envisaged to introduce 100% salary for all graduates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8179/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Under the Haddington Road Agreement (HRA), nurses and midwives participating in the Graduate Nurse Programme are paid 85% of the first point of the Staff Nurse/Midwifery Scale in the first year, €23,129, and 90% in the second year, €24,490. Slightly higher scales apply for Mental Health Nurses, €23,667 in the first year and €25,059 in the second year, maintaining previous relativities. In addition, participating nurses would also be in receipt of allowances and other premium payments. The HRA also specifies that any subsequent appointment following completion of the Graduate Nurse Programme will be to the third point of the staff nurse salary scales. A memo issued on the 10th October 2014 by the National Director of Human Resources HSE offered participants in the Graduate Nurse Programme 100% of the staff grade nurse salary on fixed term contracts where agency nursing is being used.

The HRA provides for a review of the Graduate Nurse Programme when the successor to the HRA is being negotiated.