Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that just 19.5% of interns found employment with their host organisation. It is not surprising that the bulk of the Minister's reply concerns measures to prevent abuse by employers of the internship scheme and interns. This is no coincidence because the scheme is abusive in itself, essentially providing free labour for employers. It is quite clear that the JobBridge and Gateway programmes are a ruse to reduce the figures on the live register by 11,000 and a lame excuse for the Government's failure to invest in the creation of jobs with real wages. Does the Minister agree that the facts damn her? Young people are not hanging around unemployed. There were 32 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in August this year. The result of the Minister's shameful measure in cutting the benefits for young people up to age 26 years will be to force them into a situation where they will be subjects for free labour and abuse. The anecdotal and real evidence from many participating in internships is that this is exactly what is happening.

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