Brendan Griffin
Question:311. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Health his views on a matter raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) on nurses pay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37527/20]
View answerThursday, 19 November 2020
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Written answers
Earlier this year, the Health Care Assistant initiative (whereby student nurses and midwives were offered temporary contracts as Health Care Assistants) began in April 2020 and ceased in August 2020.
This was in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and was only ever intended as a temporary measure to provide additional support of to the national effort, it also offered some protection to the ongoing education of student nurses and midwives as their clinical placements had ceased. Student nurses and midwives who took part in this initiative received payment of the first point of the Health Care Assistant salary scale, €28,493. The rate was also temporarily applied to those 4th year nurses and midwives on paid work placements.
The regular pay for 4th year nurse students on internship increased by 2% on 1st October this year. The annualised salary for this group is now €21,749 (or €10.72 per hour) for general nursing and midwifery and €22,229 (€10.96 per hour) for psychiatric nursing.
Post qualification and registration, graduate nurses can join the public health service as a Staff Nurse with a starting salary of €30,609 (€31,295 for psychiatric nursing) and after 1 year and 16 weeks experience may be eligible to apply for the role of Enhanced Practise Nurse with a starting salary of €37,161. The recent Nursing Agreement also included measures that accelerate career progression, improvements to certain pay and allowances as well as pay adjustments for new entrants. These measures should help attracting and retaining nurses in the public health service. A nursing career in the public health service also offers other opportunities for career progression as well as other pay and non-pay benefits and I would encourage student nurses to take up these opportunities.