Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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675. To ask the Minister for Health the reason he is unwilling to concede to the demands of student nurses and midwives to be paid at the healthcare assistant rate they were given earlier in 2020 for their work on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has since been withdrawn while they continue to play an important and crucial role as they played in March and April 2020, especially in view of the Taoiseach stating in Dáil Éireann on 20 October 2020 that these students should be paid like they were in the spring; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39805/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Earlier this year, the Health Care Assistant initiative (whereby student nurses and midwives were offered temporary contracts to work as Health Care Assistants) began in April 2020 and ceased in August 2020.

This was in response to the Covid19 outbreak and was only ever intended as a temporary measure to provide additional support to the national effort, it also offered some protection to the ongoing education of student nurses and midwives as their clinical placements had ceased. Student nurses and midwives who took part in this initiative received payment of the first point of the Health Care Assistant salary scale, €28,493. The rate was also temporarily applied to those 4th year nurses and midwives on paid work placements.

The regular pay for 4th year student nurses on paid internship increased by 2% on 1st October this year. The annualised salary for this group is now €21,749 (or €10.72 per hour) for general nursing and midwifery and €22,229 (€10.96 per hour) for psychiatric nursing.

In addition, there are other supports open to all eligible nursing students:

- An accommodation allowance available for eligible nursing students which amounts up to €50.79 a week for the duration of the placement where it is necessary for the student to obtain accommodation away from his/her normal place of residence.

- A travel allowance is also available to eligible nursing.

My Department is currently reviewing these allowances for student nurses on clinical placements and expects to conclude this review shortly.

In the meantime, my Department completed an interim review on the 19th November that confirmed the educational and welfare protections that are in place for those on placement at the present time. These protections span supports for those on placement who have lost part time employment due to COVID-19 right through to occupational health and illness supports that are available while this pandemic is ongoing.