Pay rates for student nurses are to be increased from the beginning of March under a new deal agreed between the Government and nursing unions.
About 1,400 student nurses and midwives a year will benefit from the pay rise, which arises from the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
Pay for student nurses during their final-year placement is being increased from 55 per cent of the first point of the staff nurse salary scale to 70 per cent. As a result, pay for student nurses will rise from between €6.49 per hour and €7.79 per hour at present to €9.49 for the period they spend working in hospitals or a clinical setting.
In future, the 36 weeks that student nurses work in hospitals will also be recognised officially as they move along the incremental scale. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said this would result in a new graduate moving to the second point of the scale, worth over €2,000, after 16 weeks.
The position of those who graduated since 2011 will be considered in a further review. The union said it would pursue retrospective incremental credit for the graduate classes in 2011 and 2015.
INMO general secretary Liam Doran welcomed the pay restoration and said it went “some way” to correct a serious wrong done to young nurses and midwives in 2011/12.
"We also acknowledge the recognition, by Ministers Kathleen Lynch, Brendan Howlin and Leo Varadkar, that this issue had to be addressed and that paying young nurses/midwives less than the minimum wage was wrong and could not be continued."
“The INMO will continue to pursue the outstanding issue of granting incremental credit to recent graduates. We believe that this is necessary in our continuing effort to recruit, and retain, young graduate nurses/midwives to our health service which remains severely understaffed”.
The Union of Students in Ireland also welcome the announcement and said it hoped few young nurses and midwives would emigrate as a result.
Improving economy
Ministers Lynch and Varadkar said it was a reflection of the improving economic circumstances that the health service was now in a position to improve the rate of pay for students and to restore recognition of the duration of the placement for incremental credit purposes into the future.
This is the fifth measure introduced in recent months to boost recruitment and retention of nurses, they said. Other measures include: a first stage of pay restoration; a cut in the Universal Service Charge; a €1,500 vouched education bursary for new recruits;, more permanent contracts and relocation payments, and payments for taking on duties from doctors.
The number of nurses employed by the HSE since last year has increased by 900, according to the Department.
