Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy probably heard during the budget announcement, next year 1,800 people will be recruited into schools, including teachers, resource teachers and SNAs.

In terms of Ireland's economic recovery, it is a real pleasure to be able to announce such widescale recruitment in 2015. That is very positive.

The reality - the Deputy does not appear to appreciate this - is that a person who became unemployed for, say, six months or more or a young graduate coming out of college at the height of the recession often found that employment was closed to them because no firms were recruiting. JobBridge was a response to the situation whereby people wanted to undertake voluntary work to obtain vital experience but under social welfare rules were barred from doing so.

In regard to schools, school boards are independent in terms of how they manage their affairs. I understand that a number of schools have taken on one or two interns who, in addition to the ongoing work of the school undertaken by teachers, have taken on additional work in IT, library and specific specialist areas. Such positions are popular. Many of the people who took up those positions have gone on to obtain further employment, which previously they could not break into because they had no experience. That is the essential point.

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