Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last Wednesday, the Taoiseach and his Government insulted the student nurses and midwives of this country by voting down the Solidarity-People Before Profit motion, which was drawn up in conjunction with those student nurses and midwives, calling for them to be paid. The Taoiseach has since insulted them by suggesting that they are not doing real work and that he is protecting their education, when we have repeatedly given him dozens of testimonies from those student nurses and midwives about the extent of their work, about how they are being exploited in terms of working with Covid-19 patients, getting Covid-19 themselves, working with the sick, the dying and mothers giving birth and about the number of hours they work. The Taoiseach has also insulted them by suggesting that they are getting allowances when huge numbers of them are not getting allowances at all. Even if they do get them, those allowances would not cover their accommodation or travel costs.

The Taoiseach has added the final insult by refusing to pay the student nurses and midwives who protected us on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic and signing off on an unbelievable restoration of pensions and of increases of up to €15,000 for former taoisigh and civil servants who are in already in receipt of payments in excess of €100,000. That is simply shocking beyond belief. In doing this, the has further insulted those to whom I refer by betraying the promise in the section of the programme for Government relating to healthcare workers in which it is stated that the Government would reward our healthcare workers for the work they have done on the front line of Covid-19 and for their dedication and professionalism. He has betrayed what he said directly to me in this House on 20 October to the effect that he would return them to the healthcare assistant, HCA, rate of pay which had been agreed during the period of Covid-19 earlier in the year. In fact, the first thing the Government did after penning the words in the programme for Government was to take that HCA rate off them. The Taoiseach should stop with the spin, stop believing the fantasy he is being told by the HSE and listen to the voices of the student nurses and midwives.

Will the Taoiseach reinstate the HCA rate that was given to the student nurses and midwives earlier in the year and that he took back from them as one of his first actions in office? Will he dispense with the nonsense that there is a choice between getting paid and getting a degree? Even in Britain, nurses pursuing degree courses get significant bursaries and do not have to pay excessive fees. Will the Taoiseach stop insulting the intelligence of student nurses and midwives, respect the work they do and pay them for their placements?

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