Student nurse pay cuts would be reversed by Sinn Féin TDs in government

Student nurses protest at Dublin's St James's Hospital

SINN FÉIN would reverse the Fianna Fáil Government’s cut to student nurses' pay on work placements, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said today as nurses held lunchtime protests at 13 hospitals across the State.

The Cavan/Monaghan TD said the cut is an “unfair and unjust Government decision”. He added:

Sinn Féin TDs will vote to immediately restore the pay of working fourth-year student nurses and midwives to 80% of the minimum of the current nurse scale.

He added:

We commend the many thousands of nurses and midwives who have campaigned not only against the unjust pay cuts but, very importantly, against the many cuts in services to patients over recent years. It is most often the nurses who have blown the whistle on the HSE and the Government, exposing malpractice, the reality of A&E overcrowding and the myriad other effects of Government cutbacks.

No patient services were disrupted during the protests, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation was keen to reassure families.