Elaine Loughlin: Government adopts the 'three Ds' — dally, deny, delay

With the Cabinet preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic, other issues have been allowed to simmer and eventually boil over, writes Elaine Loughlin

Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport, Eamon Ryan; Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar and An Taoiseach Micheál Martin who head the three-stool Government has adopted the three Ds tactic to many difficult issues — dally, deny and delay.

Ministers should put a cushion on their Christmas wish lists so they can stop sitting on their hands.

This three-stool Government has adopted the three Ds tactic to many difficult issues — dally, deny and delay.

The latest controversy on pay for student nurses is yet another example of when faced with a problem their go-to strategy is to initially ignore the issue, then stall as opposition pressure mounts, before eventually digging themselves out of a hole that they really didn't need to jump into in the first place.

From the Justice Minister's two-week refusal to appear before the Dáil on the Seamus Woulfe appointment, to the delay in publishing a Covid roadmap back in September, the mess over the CervicalCheck tribunal and the sealing of documents from the mother and baby home commission, this Government has allowed issues to fester and grow into full-scale controversies.

This historic coalition is governing during a time of unprecedented uncertainty and it must be acknowledged that in many cases they have been ahead of our European counterparts in making difficult decisions on Covid restrictions, which ultimately have saved lives and have led us to be among the best when it comes to tackling rates of the infection.

But with the Cabinet preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic, other issues have been allowed to simmer and eventually boil over.

When rumblings over student nurses' pay first began in September and October, there was little expectation of a full overhaul of the current payments and allowances system.

One source said student nurses would have happily accepted a modest increase to the €50 weekly allowance, which in reality very few qualify for at the movement.

But with the issue dominating much of the business of the Dáil in recent weeks, hopes have been raised well beyond that and public support has rowed in behind the cause.

The announcement that the weekly allowance to help with the cost of accommodation and travel is likely to be increased from next month following a rapid independent review of the payment, is welcome.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil on Thursday that the Government is also conducting a second, longer-term review of the pay given to those on student placements generally.

For those working on hospital wards - and the many personal accounts put on the Dáil record show that student nurses work very hard while on placement - it is too little too late.

While the Solidarity-PBP motion which demanded that all student nurses be put on the same rate as health care assistants may have been overly simplistic and could force first-year students into a situation where they are expected to work from day one, so too is the claim from Government that paying students would equate to a reversal of the progress that has been made in the area of education.

#PayStudentNursesAndMidwives

In Germany for the degree course student nurses & midwives are paid up to €1030 per month.

It is possible to keep the degree program and pay student nurses & midwives and no amount of spin will change that pic.twitter.com/mZfG9Z8Pk3

— Richard Boyd Barrett (@RBoydBarrett) December 10, 2020

While fourth-year student nurses undertake a 36-week roster of continuous placement and are paid as health service employees, first, second and third-year students are not paid.

It is accepted that final year students on placement are there to work with an educational component. For earlier years the educational element should be the main focus with some work tacked on.

However, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has stressed that students on placements in hospitals across Ireland are facing additional Covid-19 risks and are effectively being asked to work as staff for no pay.

Many have also faced income loss, as they are no longer able to work part-time as care assistants while studying, due to the infection risk of working in a care home while also on placement in a hospital. 

This element was addressed at the start of this month by the Health Minister when he announced that student nurses who had to give up part-time jobs will now qualify for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).

Meanwhile, a HSE scheme to pay many students healthcare assistant salaries was used at the start of the pandemic in March is no longer operating.

The Dáil has heard heart-rendering accounts of student nurses who are plugging the gaps in a health system that is under severe pressure.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has stressed that students on placements in hospitals across Ireland are facing additional Covid-19 risks and are effectively being asked to work as staff for no pay.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald was among those who shared some of the messages from student nurses, including one from 'Rebecca' who she said: "Lives at home, unable to afford student housing and she comes home every night from work fearful that she has contracted the virus and could pass it on to her immuno-compromised dad."

Sinead, another student nurse, detailed how she has sat with women who are crying.

"We are the ones who hold their hands and tell them everything will be ok. We are the ones who cry with them," Ms McDonald told the Dáil on her behalf.

Our petition is still open!! We’re calling for a fair deal for student nurses and midwives, with over 25,000 signatures so far. Sign, share, and help end exploitation on the front line! https://t.co/O7RDLCm7vG pic.twitter.com/xGrpcBol5a

— Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (@INMO_IRL) December 3, 2020

Micheál Martin has repeatedly stressed that nursing unions had fought hard to move away from the two-year apprenticeship model to a four-year degree course.

He said we cannot return to an "era when nurses did menial tasks and were on the bottom rung of the ladder in our hospitals and in the medical hierarchy, deferring to consultants and so on".

"The idea of the introduction of a degree programme was to end that era, professionalise nursing and give opportunities in nurse education so nurses could take their rightful place in the overall structures within our health services. 

"That was the objective and the idea behind that was that first-year students would have clinical placements of six weeks at a time," he said.

No one would argue with that.

But the issue is not simply as black and white as apprenticeship versus degree. Student nurses - unlike medical students whose time on placement is purely observational - do get involved in the nitty-gritty of the work on wards.

The Taoiseach and his Government may believe this is wrong but it is the reality.

While student nurses, around 90% of whom are female, are not being paid for working on wards, other cohorts do receive payment while in training.

Those studying in the Garda College in Templemore, a traditionally male-dominated profession, receive an allowance of €184 per week for the 32 weeks leading to attestation. Accommodation and food are also provided.

Garda trainees attest after 32 weeks and move onto the first point of the Garda incremental pay scale of €30,296.

Just as Helen McEntee eventually agreed to address the Dáil on the Woulfe issue, the Government has in recent days finally softened the line on student nurses - but not before doing itself significant damage.

Fine Gael members vented fury at a private meeting of their parliamentary party this week over the handling of the issue, claiming the Government had shot itself in the foot.

When questioned about the decision to restore pay to over 4,000 of the country's highest-paid civil servants, Mr Varadkar said there is never a good time to sign off on such measures.

"If this happened next week or the week after I have no doubt we'd be accused of trying to hide it before Christmas," he said.

The best time to make a decision on an issue that can be solved with a bit of political will and common sense is when the problem first emerges.

Instead, this Government has sustained multiple attacks from across the opposition on the student nurse issue and now their solution appears half-hearted and piecemeal.