Student nurses should be paid higher allowances for working during Covid-19, the Minister for Higher and Further Education Simon Harris has said.
The former minister for health said it was “right” and “appropriate” that student nurses were paid for working during the pandemic and he would like to see “immediate action” next month following a review.
An independent review into student nurses’ allowances is due to be completed by the end of the month.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil last week that any recommended increase in allowances could be in place in January if representative organizations gave their backing.
The Government has come under sustained criticism in recent weeks for not paying some student nurses, and earlier this month it voted against a motion by the Opposition to pay them.
Student nurses and midwives are given allowances for working but only fourth-year students are paid a salary for their work.
Mr Harris said: “We now have a situation where clinical placements are back. Student nurses are back in full-time education. But there are two very important issues that still arise.
“One, how do we, as you rightly say, ensure that our nurses get fair allowances, and two, how do we ensure that if they are in clinical placements as opposed to work, that has a very clear understanding of the difference, because if somebody is rostered to work, that is work and work must pay. There’s a difference between a clinical placement and work.
“And I know the Minister for Health has said he intends to a) investigate what I just said about the difference between work and clinical placements, and b) crucially finish a review of allowances.
“The Taoiseach has said in the Dáil last week that he expects that that review will result in higher allowances for student nurses. I think that would be right and I think that would be appropriate and I think that’s what the people of this country expect.”
He said he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the review, but he “expected immediate action”.