Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The comparison with Revenue is not appropriate. People are bound by law to pay their taxes. The internship JobBridge scheme is a voluntary arrangement on the part of both the intern and the host organisation. As we have gone along, we have refined and improved the scheme. We have broadened it and introduced further specifications over time. In the beginning, offers were posted which were not internships and this was a frequent complaint initially. This was because we were launching a brand new scheme, unseen previously in Ireland. We have been learning constantly since.

The intern is important and it is important he or she has a good experience. Interns communicate with us monthly and we are focused on them and their experience, along with the benefit to the host organisation, because we want them to be able to move on to further employment, either with the host or someone else. They communicate with us monthly and also have access to Department staff who will visit the host organisation and conduct a monitoring visit. Where there is a complaint, we investigate it speedily and examine the cause of the complaint. As a consequence, the volume of complaints is very small.

In addition, there is a very active community in the various social media who voluntarily monitor closely every aspect of JobBridge and advise the Department. We take all of the observations made to us and reflect them in the subsequent development of the scheme. An offence or failure on the part of companies taking on interns cannot be compared to a Revenue offence, as by law, one must pay one's taxes. What companies must do with this scheme is to give interns a quality experience and a proper internship. A Revenue offence belongs to a different category. Most of the firms offering internships are voluntary members of the scheme. Where an intern has a problem, we will withdraw that intern if the host organisation is at fault and will find another placement for him or her.

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