UCD SU SUPPORT STUDENT NURSES PROTEST

UCD Students' Union called on the Government to reverse the decision to make pre-registration nurses work for free by 2015 at today's protest in Dublin.

Members of the UCD Students' Union along with students and pre-registration nurses turned out in force to make their voice heard at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin

UCD SU President Paul Lynam said "Expecting nurses to work for 36 weeks without pay is nothing short of slave labour and exploitation."

"This measure cannot be implemented and the Students' Union will be joining up with groups from all over Ireland to make this ridiculous scheme is never implemented."

"Pre-registration nurses work long hours in stressful conditions and being expected to do this for nothing is beyond belief. It is the last desperate measure of a Government that has completely lost touch with the lives of the ordinary working person."

"Students will often have loans accumulated from the costs of going to college and this will only worsen the situation and in extreme cases lead to students being unable to complete their course."

"Pre-registration nurses play a valuable role in easing the pressure on the already overburden health system and should be encouraged to enter the profession. We need more people to be entering the system if the healthcare system is to ever recover from the shambolic mess left by the current Government."