Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Is the Minister aware that according to the JobBridge website and her responses to me six weeks ago, the purpose of the scheme is to provide experience to people who cannot get a job because they do not have experience? However, various internship advertisements on the website unashamedly pronounce that two to four years' experience is required to get a position. How can she square that circle? They cannot, on the one hand, claim that this is to gain experience and on the other hand prevent people from getting the internship because they do not have two to four years' experience.

Does the Minister accept that there is a real problem with the scheme? Is she aware that in 2010 the US Department of Labor produced six criteria covering internships? One of those criteria provides that the employer can only get an intern for free if it derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern. This is designed to ensure that the internship must be a benevolent act by the employer and not exploitation.

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