Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I would take a fairly similar view to Deputy Wallace. Although in principle internships are a reasonably good idea which give on the job training, a strict regime and control is required to ensure the level of abuse is limited. There will always be abuse of that kind of system. In Germany the welfare system was used when the economy was flat to keep people at work so such people did not need to be upskilled. It was a good way to use the welfare system as people were ready to deploy as a trained work force when the opportunity arose. I am not averse to the idea of internships but the initiative will aggrieve those who come out of college and are not entitled to social welfare payments, particularly where they are just above the limits for any sort of payment. I understand it excludes people who are entitled to sign for credits even though they are in the same category as those who want to develop work experience. Is an initiative planned for this group?

I ask the Minister to clarify her intentions for the evaluation process. The evaluation could be completed quickly in order to weed out abuse at an early stage. This would assist jobs growth, which is important because people want to be in meaningful and paid employment rather than participating in schemes.

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