Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to reply to the matter raised by Deputy Mitchell.

The JobBridge scheme is the Government's national internship scheme. It will provide up to 5,000 places for those seeking employment, with an internship opportunity of six to nine months in an organisation in the private, public or community and voluntary sectors. During this time participants will receive an allowance which will consist of a €50 per week top-up to their existing social welfare entitlements.

There are, currently, 2,500 internships advertised on the JobBridge website and just over 2,000 people have commenced an internship. That includes about 625 people who transferred from the FÁS work placement programme, where no top-up was paid. The rest are people who started with the JobBridge internship programme.

In order for an individual to be eligible to participate in JobBridge, the national internship scheme, an individual must be currently in receipt of a live claim, that is, jobseeker's allowance, jobseeker's benefit or signing for credit, on the live register and have been in receipt of jobseeker's benefit, jobseeker's allowance or signing on for social insurance contribution credits for a total of 78 days or more in the last six months.

A recent graduate signing for credits will be eligible to participate in JobBridge 78 days from the day they first signed on. A person may qualify for credits if they have one paid contribution and do not have a two year gap in their social insurance record when they sign on. If the graduate has never worked, he or she is not eligible to participate in the scheme. However, graduates who are not eligible for JobBridge can avail of the work placement programme. Anyone who is unemployed is eligible to apply for the work placement programme. It is another work experience programme that allows graduates to continue to develop and improve their skills in a work environment.

The scheme has been extremely successful. It has been going for 16 weeks and we have more than 1,400 participants. It is not a graduate only scheme. There is no requirement that a participant would have graduated. It is, however, suitable for people who have completed a certain level of education or training. Some are graduates or, indeed, postgraduates. The scheme is proving extremely popular. Many employers have offered to take part and host internships.

I will bear in mind what the Deputy has said. The scheme came with conditionality in relation to taking people off the live register. That was one of the IMF conditions that we acceded to. I am conscious of the situation the Deputy describes. We are amending the scheme as we go along where we can get the agreement of the Department of Finance. It came with certain conditionality. However, there is a great deal of enthusiasm about the scheme. It is new to Ireland and we are listening very carefully to any criticisms that are offered. That is the experience of the host employers, of applicants and of those who have commenced internships.

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