A "short and independent review" of student nurses allowances is due to be completed by the end of the month, the Minister for Health has said.
Stephen Donnelly said he asked for the review in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Donnelly told the Dáil that if representative organisations give their backing for the review, any recommended increase in allowance in relation to Covid-19 would be in place in January.
He said the Government was also looking at a second, longer-term review of student placements generally.
Mr Donnelly also said that the Government has instigated a formal review into whether student nurses were being asked to do inappropriate practices while on placement.
He said that if serious breaches were found they will be dealt with, because he said students were under the care of the HSE when they are on placement.
Mr Donnelly said that student nurses and midwives receive allowances, including for accommodation up to €50 per week and a refund of travel expenses.
He said students are paid salaries of €21,000/€22,000 in year four of their studies.
The minister was responding to Sinn Féin's health spokesperson David Cullinane, who asked about the campaign for fair pay for student nurses and midwives.
Mr Cullinane said they need more than words at this point and he said they need action. He said that it is important that this issue is not buried in reviews.
In relation to the payment of a wage, Mr Donnelly said that educators were concerned about what looks like a push to change a graduate degree profession into an apprenticeship model.
Mr Cullinane said the minister's response was "disingenuous".
He said that fourth-year students should be paid the same as health care assistants and that there would be a fair allowance for first, second and third-year students.
Mr Cullinane said Sinn Féin was not calling for a return to the past as they were looking for a fair allowance for students.
"Student nurses are plugging the gaps in a health system that is under severe pressure," says Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty ¦ Read more: https://t.co/yddWu9sHTl pic.twitter.com/UpchFXGeg2
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 10, 2020
His party colleague, Pearse Doherty, told the Dáil that the present health system is exploiting student nurses.
Speaking during Leaders' Questions, he said Mr Donnelly promised that the review of student allowances would be completed as far back as October.
He also asked if any increase in payments would be backdated to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says it is a norm for nursing students that they are not paid during the first three years of their degree. However, he said where student nurses take on the role of staff nurses they should be paid ¦ Read more: https://t.co/yddWu9sHTl pic.twitter.com/7joA0Fo08Y
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 10, 2020
In response, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said nurses in their first three years of their training were completing a degree and it is the norm for students, including teachers, that they are not paid during this time.
However, he said where student nurses take on the role of staff nurses they should be paid.
HSE boss pays tribute to student nurses
HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid paid tribute to student nurses and midwives and the huge role they had played in the health service.
He said they had been deployed as healthcare workers at an unprecedented time.
However, Mr Reid said their pay was a policy issue for Government, but he believed some of the recent commentary suggesting there had been widespread abuse and exploitation of student nurses and midwives, had been quite damaging to colleges, to the HSE, to staff and students.
Mr Reid said if anyone felt they were being exploited or abused, there were very clear processes.
He said no one should be abused or exploited in the HSE workforce and that he would not stand for it.
The HSE chief said it had not been his experience as he had experienced great collaboration and support in the health service, but said there were processes in place for anyone who felt they had been abused.
Additional reporting Mícheál Lehane, Orla O'Donnell
