Student nurses and midwives pay
Deputy Boyd Barrett called for student nurses and midwives to be paid properly for placement work and criticised the temporary and low pandemic-era payment. The Tánaiste said he understood the recruitment and retention pressures in health services and pointed to recent staff growth and further recruitment authority.
It is just under a year since People Before Profit brought the first motion to this Dáil calling for student nurses and student midwives to be paid while they are working on placement. Today, they are still out there protesting and demanding they be paid and respected for the work they do during placement. I understand the Tánaiste said earlier there will be a slight increase for final year students and a continuation, just for the period of the pandemic, of the pretty miserable and insulting €100 per week. Does the Tánaiste not understand that the majority of those student nurses and midwives are planning or considering leaving this country, and this is repeated outside by all of the students when you talk to them, because of the lack of respect and reward they get while they are students, including the difficulties with fees, the cost of subsistence, travel and accommodation, and the inability to work while they are on placement? This is not just a Covid issue. We need to pay our student nurses and midwives and support them if we are going to keep them in the public health service after they qualify.
Comment on this
As somebody who worked in the public health service for seven years, as somebody who represents a constituency just like the Deputy does, and as somebody who has friends and family working in the health service, I very much understand the recruitment and retention challenges the Irish health services face. I understand such challenges are far from unique to Ireland. It is a problem faced by almost every health service in the developed world. Nonetheless, we are making important progress. The HSE was able to add an additional 7,000 to 8,000 staff in the past year and has authorisation to add another 7,000 or 8,000 staff. We have more doctors employed by the HSE than ever was the case before, both consultants and non-consultant hospital doctors. We have been increasing our midwife and nurse numbers in recent years, which is extremely welcome.
What can we do about it? The pay increases happening right across the public service can help. Reductions in income tax, which the Deputy does not support, have the same effect in people's take home pay and help to reduce the cost of living. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, will be making an announcement about the increase in the payment for student nurse and midwife interns.