John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's own Department internal report on the JobBridge scheme highlighted high risk concerns. These were the same concerns that Sinn Féin Deputies, and especially my colleague Deputy Ó Snodaigh, had raised continually from the outset of the JobBridge scheme being introduced in 2011. The Department's own auditors had expressed concerns over a lack of initial validation of the employers' eligibility and whether the use of interns could lead to a possible displacement of real jobs. The report also noted that no checks whatsoever were carried out on the redundancy payments issued by companies who hired interns which could mean that some companies may have laid off workers, the positions being filled by interns. The auditors questioned the accuracy of data supplied by so called host organisations, specifically with regard to the number of staff that the companies claimed to employ.

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