Sharon Keogan: Stop Making Student Nurses Pay to Work
Sharon Keogan raises urgent concerns about nursing education in Ireland after a constituent described how student nurses work unpaid clinical shifts while paying full university fees. She argues the current degree functions like an unpaid apprenticeship and calls for a review of training and retention measures.
Immediate concern
Sharon Keogan highlights a constituent case in which a young woman applying for a general nursing degree faces long unpaid clinical placements, early shifts and full annual fees of €3,000 with limited grant support. Keogan says students are performing essential frontline tasks without pay while also shouldering academic demands and extra paid work to cover basic costs.
Historical contrast and the apprenticeship question
Keogan points out that nursing training was once a paid apprenticeship, where trainee nurses were recognised and paid as part of the workforce. She argues that although the work, responsibility and pressure remain the same, the pay and recognition have been removed, leaving students to effectively pay to perform labour.
Policy implications and retention focus
Keogan urges a rethink of whether nursing should return to an apprenticeship-style model and calls for measures to improve retention, such as tax incentives or service requirements for newly qualified nurses. She warns that without change, Ireland risks training nurses only to lose them abroad, undermining efforts to address staffing shortages.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Thank you Lascaille Hearlock and Leader, I want to raise concerns that were brought to my attention today by a constituent regarding the current situation of nursing education in Ireland. She outlined the situation facing her daughter who, like her mother once did, is applying for a general nursing degree and highlighted a growing sense of frustration among families and within the profession itself. While nursing is formerly a four-year honours degree, in reality it functions very much like an apprenticeship. Students spend long days on clinical placements, often starting early morning shifts, working alongside fully qualified staff in high-pressure environments, yet receive no pay for that labour. At the same time, they are expected to pay full university fees of £3,000 per year with limited grant support. Many students must work evenings and weekends just to afford basic costs such as transport or a car, while also managing the academic demands of the course and their own work placements. What's unbelievable is how much has changed. There was a time not that long ago when student nurses were instead apprentice nurses, they were paid while they trained, they were recognised as part of the workforce. Now we have a situation where the work is the same, the shifts are still early, the pressure is still high, the responsibility is real, but the pay is gone. Students are doing essential frontline work and paying for the privilege of doing so. Let me reiterate that. We have student nurses working full backbreaking shifts and we are having them pay to do that. Now that is insanity. If we are serious about addressing the ongoing shortages of nurses, then we need to rethink this model and examine whether nursing should be an apprenticeship. We must also look at retention, whether through tax breaks or newly qualified nurses or requirements to remain in the public system for a number of years. We need to ensure that Ireland can train and retain its own nurses rather than losing talent abroad. Thank you.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
