REAL IMPACT

Midwifery student Laura Killeen tells how she’d still be better off in UK

LAURA Killeen, a midwifery student at Trinity College Dublin, said: ‘At the moment, there is nothing here to keep me.

‘In the UK, you’re getting an extra €8,000 a year just for going across the water. It’s just a hop, skip and a jump over and you get €8,000 extra a year.

‘ The Budget hasn’t done enough to hang on to graduates. There’s nothing in there for graduates or for nurses.

‘It’s all well and good for them to say “come home”, but they’re driving more people away.’

Her annual income is €2,680 for working six hours a week, on a Sunday. She will earn an extra €3 per week from the minimum wage increase in her part-time job at a chemist and 25c extra per week from USC changes.

But she is unhappy at the lack of pay for placement work in her degree. ‘It’s proper fulltime hours,’ said Ms Killeen of Raheny, Dublin. ‘It averages out at 35 hours a week. We don’t get paid until we’re in our final year. I’m in third year but the fourth years are paid less than minimum wage anyway.

‘It’s ridiculous. They should be paid at least the minimum wage. They’re being treated as staff nurses. It’s outrageous.’ On t he minimum wage increase, she said: ‘It’s an extra €3 a week. It will affect people that work full-time more than me but it’s still a help.

‘I think it’s great. Especially in college, it’s a big help.’

And when it came to college, she was at least relieved.

‘I am happy that fees didn’t go up,’ she said.