Student nurses and midwives deserve to be paid a living wage "for their heroic work" and not the current Government offer, which "amounts to around €3 an hour".
This is the view of People Before Profit Galway spokesperson Adrian Curran [pictured below], who said Government's offer to student nurses of a Pandemic Placement Grant worth €100 per week when they are on hospital placements is "completely disgraceful", especially during what is "the worst phase yet of the Covid-19 pandemic".
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Government offer criticised
The Government's grant offer has been roundly criticised by opposition politicians, while the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called instead for students to be paid a healthcare assistant rate of pay (€11.93 an hour ) something which was done earlier in the pandemic. The Government voted down a People Before Profit motion to pay student nurses and midwives for their placements.
"Student nurses are risking their own health to plug a gap in our health service caused by years of under-resourcing and privatisation by successive Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, and Green Party governments," said Mr Curran. "This is an insult to these heroic workers. Student nurses are entering the frontlines, in a very dangerous public health situation."
