Sinn Fein says student nurses and midwives can’t pay their bills with gratitude.
It’s after Government TDs voted against a People Before Profit motion calling for them to be paid the same rate as healthcare assistants.
That’s €14 an hour, which students did receive in the first wave of the pandemic.
KCLR is not aware of any Carlow or Kilkenny TD voting for the motion as Sinn Fein’s Kathleen Funchion was absent due to family commitments while FG’s John Paul Phelan was not in attendance on health grounds.
It’s understood Malcolm Noonan voted in line with the government like the rest of the Green Party representatives while Fianna Fail’s John McGuinness voted with the government – we’ve yet to hear from his party colleague Jennifer Murnane O’Connor.
A student nurse from Carlow who was on placement on a Covid ward during the first lockdown has this plea on KCLR for the local TDs “I just ask them to please just support their constituents you know, support their student nurses because we’re working so hard, we’re not asking for much, we’re just asking to be paid for our work so that we can continue to do our work and we can continue to live our lives and finish the course”.
He adds “Any student nurse I talk to wants to work, they want to help, but we just need to be put in a position where we’re able to do so, I don’t think any of us are in it for the fame or glory or the pats on the back, we’re in this to help people and to be able to help people we need to be given a wage that we can live on”.
