Paul Murphy: Demands Living Wage, Stop Fees for Student Nurses

Minister in six minutes or so you'll stand up and you'll explain why the government doesn't think that student nurses should be paid you might say that they shouldn't be paid in order to protect their education but before you do I'd like you to listen to the words of student nurses who have been on the front line of fighting COVID Maeve Evans is a student nurse from Dublin Southwest she wrote to me and explained quote to choose a life of becoming a nurse or a midwife is not easy many of us have worked throughout Ireland's first wave of COVID-19 when it struck our acute hospitals and various other health care facilities we helped out in our already struggling health care system and yes we were given a round of applause then but now we were being hushed I worked as a health care assistant for 12 weeks in a nursing home during the pandemic under the HSE student nurse contract I was offered little to no supports and genuinely found this traumatizing I had to start anti-anxiety medications and seek mental health treatment after this experience I currently get 25 euro per week during my placement this amounts to about 65 cents per hour worked I love nursing trust me I would have dropped out by now if I didn't but the way we are treated and valued right now is embarrassing So little minister minister we have to do so little minister it's time to stop hushing these frontline workers you should agree to treat Maeve with respect you should agree to treat all student nurses with respect you should agree to pay student nurses a decent living wage a decent living wage. We were told by then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that not all heroes wear capes but when it came to the student nurses fighting Covid-19 it seems that this government believes that not all heroes deserve pay and that's perhaps part of the usefulness of the hero narrative is that they're heroes rather than workers you don't have to pay Superman or Batman or Spiderman or whoever else. It is a disgrace and this government expects thousands of student nurses and midwives to work for free in our hospitals. The reality is our hospitals are completely dependent on these frontline workers. They're putting their health and their lives at risk to care for those in need. The very least that they should get is a living wage but instead of being paid by this government they're expected to pay the colleges thousands of euros for the privilege of working in our hospitals. In the past many had to work a part-time job on top of working in our hospitals in order to make ends meet but now due to Covid they aren't allowed to do that for fear of catching and spreading the virus. But how then are they supposed to survive? It's time to scrap the fees for these student nurses and pay them a living wage for their work. It's interesting that in March the government recognised that student nurses deserve to be paid under pressure from the unions and under pressure from the left. You offered them the healthcare assistant rate of 14 euros an hour but very quickly that plan was scrapped. You're trying to return to the normal of relying on their free labour. Many students are getting nothing, some tell me they get an allowance of 50 euro or so, a rate which amounts to 136 an hour. Even the fourth years are only getting minimum wage or less despite very skilled work in very difficult conditions. It's worth comparing and contrasting the treatment of student nurses with the treatment of TDs and with the treatment of ministers. A TD can get a travel and accommodation allowance of up to 650 euros a week on top of a bloated doll salary while student nurses are told they're lucky to get 75 euro in allowances. How on earth can the government justify this minister? What exactly is a student nurse working away from home supposed to do with a 50 euro a week accommodation allowance? It is an insult. I imagine that if the minister was told that her accommodation allowance was being cut to 50 euro a week, she would be up in arms. But why isn't she up in arms about the treatment of student nurses now? Instead of these insulting allowances, we have to recognise the work that is done by student nurses and pay them a living wage. We know and it's been referred to the fact that over 3000 healthcare workers got COVID-19. Nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants, student nurses quite literally putting themselves in harm's way in order to help fight the virus but not getting the support that they need. Even to this day the nurses union is saying that there's not full health and safety protection for student nurses. In particular they highlight the need for payment if they have to go on COVID related leave. It's time to listen to the nurses and other frontline workers and provide the support and the protections that they need. In reality it is part and parcel of a government approach of doing COVID on the cheap and doing healthcare on the cheap. Of underfunding our public health service as part of promoting a two-tier health service. I was contacted recently by junior doctors in Tallah Hospital who say that they're doing 24 hour plus shifts every single weekend at the moment. That when the shift change is meant to happen in the morning that there simply aren't the staff available and so it's those who have worked all evening who then have to do the new admissions which could be 20 people a day. There is a consequence of refusing to fund public health service which includes funding tests, trace, isolate in terms of COVID-19. There's a real consequence to that. We're experiencing our inadequate public health service and a part of that is agreeing to pay the student nurses now as part of trying to build a property funded one-tier quality national health service. Thank you Deputy Murphy. You identified somebody very clearly and I made a presumption you had that person's permission. Yes, yeah.