Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

Certainly. It is a scheme that has been in operation since July 2011. Since its inception, there have been almost 40,000 internships. Currently, we have about 6,000 jobseekers on the scheme. There was an evaluation that indicated there is progression on immediate completion of internship of in the order of 36%. When people's internships finish, approximately 36% move seamlessly into employment. Within a very short time of completion, that actually increases to about 60%. We will be looking at evaluating the scheme again just to see if that pattern has continued. However, it is a scheme that is extremely successful and there obviously has been a high take-up.

An amended version of the scheme has become available under the Youth Guarantee and it affects the conditions of participation. The length of time for which one had to be unemployed in order to access the scheme is reduced for people under 25. There has been a lot of interest in the scheme among countries across Europe because they see it as something that has worked very well.