SIPTU student nurses from Galway protested outside Leinster House yesterday against being the only undergraduate students who have to pay university fees. In an adjournment debate in the Dail last night Mr Ulick Burke (FG, Galway East) said the imposition of fees was an unjust penalty on young people.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tom Moffat, said that the Minister, Mr Cowen, had undertaken to ask his officials to look at the matter.
Dr Moffat said the department had given further consideration to the students wishing to undertake the one-year degree course, but it was not possible to ringfence any arrangements for them.
It would be inequitable to meet the fees for the students who had enrolled for the degree course being provided by NUI Galway, and not make similar provisions for all the other nursing students, he said.