Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The aim of JobBridge is to assist individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. The scheme has made very significant progress since it came into operation in July 2011, with 17,609 internship placements having commenced to date. There are currently 6,104 participants on the scheme and 2,218 vacancies available on the JobBridge website. The independent evaluation conducted by Indecon economic consultants, which I published recently, found that 61% of interns who complete placements secure employment within five months. These progression outcomes are exceptionally positive and compare very favourably with European averages in this area. The report does not state that 240 of the 7,300 companies surveyed are availing of the JobBridge scheme to displace paid jobs. The number of companies surveyed was 3,021 and the report finds that displacement only occurs in only a very small number of cases – just 3% of the overall number of placements within the organisations responding to the survey.

The Department takes breaches of the JobBridge scheme very seriously, and 17 companies have been disqualified from participating in the scheme due to breaches of the terms and conditions relating to it. This action was taken by the Department following detailed investigations. While 17 companies have been disqualified, more than 7,500 host organisations have commenced internships and, therefore, the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme. To protect interns and ensure the integrity of the JobBridge scheme, a variety of control measures and criteria are in place. These are designed to ensure an internship does not displace an existing position, that it provides appropriate training and development experience and that suitable mentoring and support is given to the intern.

To ensure both the host organisation and intern are abiding by the rules of the scheme, we monitor progress on an ongoing basis. This involves the regular review of monthly compliance reports and random monitoring site visits to facilitate discussions with both interns and host organisations. We have carried out in excess of 2,000 monitoring visits to date and 98% of these have been of a satisfactory nature. Where non-compliance is discovered, remedial action is taken.

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