I propose to take Questions Nos. 654, 662, 695 and 723 together.
Under the Initiative, graduate nurses and midwives will be recruited on two-year contracts and will be paid 80% of the first point of the Staff Nurse Scale. They will also qualify for premium payments and allowances on a pro rata basis, bringing expected average pay to approximately €25,000 per year, excluding overtime. The initiative will enable them to gain valuable work experience and development opportunities post-graduation.
The employment of graduates in a specific graduate scheme is a widespread practice in other sectors of the economy. The salary level was set having regard to the norms for such programmes and the need to achieve significant savings on nurse agency and overtime expenditure. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has also agreed that participants in this initiative will not be counted for the purposes of the Health Sector Employment Ceiling. The initiative therefore provides a valuable opportunity for a substantial number of recently-qualified nurses and midwives to work in Ireland at a time when job opportunities in the public service are, regrettably, very limited.
A proportion of graduate nurses and midwives were employed on temporary, time-limited contracts in autumn 2012 to cover the period between the end of their Fourth-Year 36-week clinical placement and the commencement in January 2013 of the clinical placements of the next cohort of Fourth-Year students. Such contracts are not intended to be of long duration. In line with existing practice and the need strictly to control staffing costs and headcount, hospital management have been advised by the HSE that these contracts should not be continued beyond January 2013.