Carol Nolan urges pay for student nurses, slams rural restrictions

Cora, I just want to make a few very brief points and indeed I just want to also raise my concern over the way the student nurses in this country are treated. Is it any wonder we can't retain them? Is it any wonder we can't recruit enough nurses who'd want to take a job up in Ireland with the way that, you know, they're being disrespected and treated very badly and I want to call on government to try redeem themselves now by making sure that the student nurses are awarded a pay increase along with midwives and also to make sure that the retention fee of €100 is waived because, I mean, it really is, I mean, clapping them one minute and then cutting them down the next is just outrageous and I just ask for that to be looked at. In terms of the dance classes, I know we had a number of dance class teachers out this morning outside Leinster House, which I met them and discussed many issues with them and it actually makes no sense that they're restricted so much. I mean, they've taken every measure they they can possibly take, they have mortgages to pay and yet children are back in school and can't attend their dance classes and, you know, one dance teacher said to me, you know, that children and teenagers are absolutely heartbroken, that it is having a serious impact on their mental health and their well-being and I would appeal to government to please show, just show some goodwill and fairness in terms of lifting this because it makes no sense when children are back in school and everything else, this needs to be looked at. Also, I understand that children can participate in soccer training, but there's huge concern among the Midland schoolboys and schoolgirls soccer club that, you know, that children can't participate in matches and it's good for their well-being and indeed helps in terms of keeping them healthy as well, which we hear so much of. I mean, we're told that children need to participate in sports and that's encouraged, but I mean, there needs to be some common sense shown here and I would appeal on behalf of the soccer clubs who are very disillusioned, you know, that the children be allowed to go back and play their matches. In terms of cinemas being open and theatres being open, that's also a very serious issue and I know it has been brought to my attention that in Bar Theatre they have a cinema club, but now we have no cinema in the town of Bar, but the cinema club which is within the theatre can't open because of this ridiculous restriction. And I would just appeal again to government to show some goodwill and show some understanding and indeed some empathy for people and I think that's what's lacking is the empathy and, you know, the hardship that people are going through and some of it is unnecessarily. I mean, some of the restrictions are completely over the top and make no sense and indeed we have seen an admission of that from some ministers and some backbench TDs that some of these measures make no sense. So we need to revisit them and I would ask in particular for that to be looked at. In terms of the rural pubs, I mean, they're being treated shamefully. We hear this government talking about rural Ireland and supporting a vibrant rural economy and that's in the programme for government. But yet we are seeing here that they're being trampled on, absolutely trampled on. I've seen many rural pubs and I can tell you they're cleaner than a lot of surgeries and hospital wards, as clean. They've put in every measure possible. And it has to be also remembered by government that we don't have the same scenario as Dublin, unfortunately. We don't have big crowds of people going in. We might have 10 people or maybe 15 at the weekends visiting their local pub. And again, this is having a huge impact. Government is speaking from two sides of their mouth all of the time. They're talking about rural isolation. But what about people living on their own who go in for that sociable drink, who speak, you know, the only time they meet somebody and it has been said to me by constituents, I don't see anybody. I might see the postman three or four days a week. That's serious. You're seriously damaging people and you're seriously impacting on people's mental health with the unfair restrictions that you're taking. Many of our rural pubs will never open again because of the measures you're taking. And I've supported these pubs from day one. And I'll continue to do so with my rural independent colleagues. But you need to look at what you're doing and the impact that it's having on people's mental health and wellbeing. We need to make sure that there are experts in every sector included in any decision making. And I feel that that's where the whole thing is going wrong, that we don't have an insightful expert, experts, their accounts and indeed their information factored into the decisions. The decisions are taken on a whim. And I just think some of them have gone way, way too far. And they need to be revisited. And some of them need to be pulled back. I mean, absolutely, we need to take precautions. But we cannot create a police estate where we take responsibility for every single citizen in the state. There has to be personal responsibility. And this, you know, I feel this state needs to lay up on that. This government, you're going way too far, way too far. Draconian measures, they're going to absolutely destroy rural Ireland. I'm coming from a constituency where there's an unjust transition taking place at present. Many job losses, where farmers are struggling. And now you're trying to take away our rural pubs and everything else. I mean, you know, you need to take stock of the impact that your decision making, poor decision making is having on rural constituencies such as Lee Shoffley and many, many others. Thank you.