I want to raise the ongoing failure to provide fair pay and allowances for student nurses and midwives. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has had the McHugh report into this matter sitting on his desk for three months. We tabled a motion yesterday evening and the Minister's remarks during that debate only extended to extending the pandemic payment for a year and vague references to what he called "other measures". At this stage, it is completely unacceptable. These students put their own welfare and lives on the line to assist others.

Only for them our health service would have ground to a standstill.

The McHugh report needs to be published urgently and there needs to be engagement with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and other unions. We also need to see permanent fair pay and allowances for all our student nurses and midwives. Will the Taoiseach commit to the immediate publication of the McHugh report and respect recognition and reward for these incredible young professionals, midwives and nurses?

I brought in the nursing degree programme quite a number of years ago as Minister for Health and Children and, if I say so myself, it was a transformative thing to do in how we educate nursing in this country and moved it on, by way of advanced nurse practitioners and postgraduate degrees, which has made a significant difference to our health system and the delivery of our health service. I am very keen therefore that we will continue to improve the situation for student nurses within the context of a degree programme within our universities and our institutes of technology. There was a deliberate decision at the time to ensure we had widespread provision across the regions for nurse education. The Minister yesterday referred to the measures he took last year in the context of Covid-19 which were important, significant and should not be dismissed. Likewise, in respect of the McHugh report, he is bringing those proposals to Cabinet and we want to take positive decisions on this and on the recommendations of that review which would create a longer term beneficial situation for student nurses.