Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We are keeping the scheme under review. It has been extremely successful. We are limited overall to 5,000 places over a two year period but we will continue to examine the eligibility criteria. The scheme is a labour activation measure. We have agreed with the IMF that people who have been on the live register should be given encouragement options to go back to work or to take part in training. We have clarified that people who are coming directly from training courses can proceed to JobBridge. Last Friday, I was pleased to be involved with Skillnets when 25 people, principally engineers, had received training in areas such as medical devices and were about to participate in JobBridge.

There are many innovations in the scheme. I remain open to innovate further as the opportunity arises, subject of course to the agreement of my colleague, the Minister for Finance.

See this speech in context