Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about Department of the Taoiseach staff and the number of interns in the Department and throughout the public service in general. Deputy Higgins made the point about whether this scheme was exploitative. I agree with Deputy Higgins that there were several cases that should not have been advertised as JobBridge positions. It is important to note that this scheme is monitored rigorously by the Department of Social Protection. That is why the cleaner, caretaker and the teaching assistant posts were removed from the JobBridge list. They should not have been there in the first place.

I believe in the national JobBridge internship scheme. It came about as a result of recommendations from the private and public sectors arising from the situation whereby young qualified people were unable to get jobs because they did not have any experience and they could not get any experience if the did not have a job. JobBridge is what it says: it is a bridge to a job for a more permanent and better range of employment. The scheme also gives unemployed people a chance to match and increase their skills so that they can learn through practical experience and on-the-job coaching and mentoring.

The figures released by the Tánaiste recently show that since the introduction of the scheme in 2011, a total of 33,068 internship placements have commenced to date, that there are 6,238 jobseekers currently on placements and that a further 2,659 posts are advertised currently on the JobBridge website. A total of 330 interns, including the 24 now active, have been employed by Departments. I am sure that either the Department of Social Protection or the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have undertaken an analysis of those who have gone through the system, how they are being tracked, where they are now, whether they are employed and whatever else.

While I agree with Deputy Higgins that several cases were put up on the JobBridge website that were not in accordance with the terms of the scheme, it is being monitored by the Department of Social Protection and those inferior positions that were advertised were taken down and removed. The numbers speak for themselves.

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