Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Over 4,000 employers have offered to host internships. JobBridge is an internship and work experience programme, not a job. Of those 4,000 employers, only 2,500 have had the request to host an internship accepted. In some cases, more must be done because the specifications do not meet the requirements. It is important to avoid displacement. In the hotel and catering industry, Fáilte Ireland has done a detailed and valuable amount of work for the hospitality sector to identify good internships and what they do.

Regarding what the Deputy describes as a low-level jobs, someone who left school without many qualifications may be interested in a different kind of job and experience to someone who is a postgraduate archaeologist. The Department and I made a decision to make JobBridge open to different levels and not to make it an internship open only to graduates and postgraduates. It is open to a wide range of people. Over 1,100 people have started internships and 625 people have transferred from the work placement programme. Feedback is positive but that does not mean there are no problems and that we do not need constant vigilance. I am sure it is providing a valuable experience to a significant number of people.

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