An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2021-11-02
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-11-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-11-02