Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that, but it does not justify abuse of the scheme. When a host puts itself into the market to accept interns, it must sign up to a certain agreement. The 23 organisations that have been identified thus far clearly did not adhere to the terms of that agreement. Does the Minister propose to name those organisations? I tabled a question to that effect previously and was told that she was not prepared to name them because, for some obscure reason, it might affect employment levels and the economy. She will be aware that if an organisation or individual is in default with the Revenue Commissioners, it suffers two punishments. First, it is subject to savage penalties and interest, and second, it is named and shamed. The latter is regarded as part of the punitive process. The organisations we are discussing suffered no punitive process other than being deprived of the opportunity to continue abusing the JobBridge scheme. They have not been named and shamed, which is the only possible punishment I regard as appropriate. Why is that the case? A number of those who have been subject to Revenue Commissioners audits and penalties are also employers. That did not stop them from being named.

If the Minister does not have this information, perhaps she will undertake to give it to me, but has any of those organisations been involved in the transgression of either labour or industrial relations law in any other context?

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