Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are a number of sectors in Ireland that are really important for employment opportunities. The IT sector is a major source of employment for Irish people and for people from other European countries coming to Ireland. In the context of the downturn in both construction and retail, it is odd that the Deputy would choose to make those comments. Across the Border, his party has been cock-a-hoop when employment expansion in the IT industry has been announced. As the Deputy knows, and I am sure he is familiar with business practices, in all IT companies there are periods when there are changes and reductions in one area of activity. The company the Deputy referred to has been expanding employment enormously in other areas and has many thousands of people employed in the greater Dublin area, Galway and Cork. That company is a major employer in Ireland and the Deputy should not indicate otherwise. It has been expanding its employment even though certain areas in IT companies change from time to time.

In response to Deputy Wallace, we changed the regulations to allow people to take on a further internship if, as a consequence of a first internship of six or nine months, they find they are not interested in that field. If a person finds an internship in an area in which he or she is interested, he or she will be allowed a second chance, as it were. That was a proposal from the interns in the survey by Indecon and it was a recommendation in the report. One can only do that repeat experience if it is in two different organisations. It is not meant to be a consecutive internship in a single organisation. That is not allowed. There are a small number of cases in which people find that the internship is not what they wish to do, but they would like a chance subsequently at another internship that they have identified as being of serious interest. It is only in such circumstances that we allow a repeat. It is not consecutive and it cannot be in the same organisation.

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