The Taoiseach has said the debate over student nurses' pay has been politicised and made overly simplistic.
The Government today approved a 2% pay rise for judges in line with public sector pay rises.
It also approved larger allowances for party whips, including a €9,000 rise in the allowance for the Sinn Féin party whip.
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has said he won't take that extra money, and will return it to the Exchequer instead.
The Government has been criticised for passing these measures after recently rejecting a motion to pay student nurses and midwives.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Taoiseach Micheál Martin claimed those measures are overly simplistic.
He said: "This debate in my view has been very politicised... guilty of short-termism... and has been designed to put one group of politicians in one corner, and another in the other corner via a motion.
"[It's] a simplistic motion that seeks to resolve public service pay, and the critical issue of how best to educate medical students."
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, meanwhile, insisted student nurses deserve to be "paid and paid properly".
She said: "We're standing here talking about student nurses working without pay on the same day you will increase pay for super-junior ministers and judges.
"These aren't normal times. The ask of student nurses is always incredible, but it is extraordinary during this pandemic."
