Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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447. To ask the Minister for Health if all student occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and radiology students will be paid for the work they carry out in hospital and healthcare settings as part of mandatory placements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42791/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Across the health and social care disciplines, there could be over 8,000 students on placement in hospital and healthcare settings.  Of this number, around a third are final year students.  The length of placements and the activities performed during these placements vary between the disciplines.  These students are not employees and in many cases the nature of the placement can, in the main, be limited to participation in an observing and a learning capacity. This is in line with other European countries.

There are no plans in place to pay students in health and social care professional roles for their time spent on placement as part of their academic course. 

Uniquely for student nurses and midwives there is, in the final year, a paid salary when they are specifically employed on an internship placement.  Student nurses and midwives’ final year internship placement consists of a continual 36-week rostered clinical placement, including annual leave. The internship placement is a paid placement as the student nurses and midwives take a reduced caseload. During these placements, students are under supervision and are considered as 0.5 WTE of the workforce.  In addition, Intern students can be allocated across all shift patterns including nights, weekends and 12-hour days.