Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

These internships are depressing real job creation. Why create a job and pay an employee when one can get someone for nothing from the Department of Social Protection and let the people pay the expense of providing work for one's company? Since the Government took up office, there are 18,000 fewer young people employed in the economy. Over roughly the same period, there have been 22,000 JobBridge internships.

The influence of JobBridge on pay rates across the economy should not be underestimated. JobBridge introduces a new minimum wage of €3.75 an hour - €100 dole plus a €50 top-up. The Minister has been fond of quoting, to me and other Deputies, the Indecon report. I went back over the report and found I had missed some of the quotes in it. The Minister might be interested in some of the figures. She failed to mention that the Indecon report states: "Average hourly earnings among JobBridge participants who have secured employment following their placements, are presently equivalent to around 56% of the average level of hourly earnings across the economy as a whole." They are not getting the top jobs. They are not getting the top rates, and yet these are persons who have skills, who have qualifications and who, often, have experience, even before they have taken up the internships. Most JobBridge participants have both qualifications and experience.

Here is another Indecon figure the Minister has not highlighted in the media. Some 29% of host companies, when surveyed, stated that in the absence of the JobBridge scheme they would have offered paid employment to interns. According to the report, "6.5% of hosts stated that they would have been highly likely to have offered paid employment to JobBridge interns in the absence of the scheme, while 22.5% indicated that they would have been fairly likely." This is proof that the Minister is providing free labour - maybe her party's name could be changed to that. This is merely the level of displacement to which the Minister admits.

The Government has also used the JobBridge scheme to provide labour in different Departments of State and also in local authorities. As the Minister has given me the figures lately, she should not shake her head. These provide free labour to Departments with no prospect of any job. Any type of internship should hold the prospect of a job at the end of it. In case the Minister has not noticed or has not read up on the notes she was given when she joined the Cabinet, there is a public service embargo. The Minister has done nothing to lift that, and yet these people are expected to work for nothing for the Department at a cost to themselves. The Minister is shameful in her protection of JobBridge.

The Government applauds itself repeatedly for reversing the €1 cut to the minimum wage that was implemented by Fianna Fáil, and I applauded her at the time. However, the Government's ultimate legacy will be the transformation of this country into a minimum-wage economy in which insecurity and poverty wages will be rife, an economy in which one will be expected to work the probationary period of nine months in any new job one seeks for free. The long-term negative impact of the Government's approach to worker's basic rights and wages for our young people will be lasting and significant. They should not be underestimated or ignored. Neither should the hundreds of thousands who have emigrated, many of whom are young people who will probably never return to our shores to take up employment and who have lost homes in the economy. These are persons in whom the State has invested. We, as an economy, should be bearing the fruits of that investment rather than allowing some other economy abroad to benefit from it.

Earlier, one of the Members stated that he found it strange that my party should be encouraging people to take up jobs, internships or activation. I have no hesitation in encouraging any young person to take up a job or a place on an activation or training scheme, but I have a major problem encouraging anyone to take up a place on a scheme that advocates free labour for companies that are making millions of euro. There are multinationals that are benefiting from this. It is a shame, given that so much Government funding is being invested in schemes such as JobBridge, that the Minister will not even publish the list of companies that are benefiting from our investment. She also will not publish the list of 32 companies that are blacklisted, those that have been found by the Department to have abused the system.

Shame on the Minister and the Government for not delivering properly for young people who are unemployed. Shame on her for forcing young people to emigrate. I wish the Minister, even at this late stage, would rethink the Government amendment to my party's motion and support the motion, which is a logical step for anybody who believes that he or she is on the left to take, to support young people who are unemployed.

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