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

There has been a very debilitating tendency over recent years, accelerated during the period of austerity, for decent jobs with pay, pension and security for low-income and middle-income workers to be replaced with temporary, low-paid and insecure types of employment. If I understand the Minister, a quarter of his departmental staff are temporary, which is extraordinary. This is carried to its most obscene conclusion with the public sector hiring workers under a so-called internship scheme called JobBridge. Is it not incredible that the public sector is hiring school teachers, school secretaries and classroom assistants on what is essentially a slave labour scheme? What is the dividend of recovery here for these temporary workers?

See this speech in context