Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria by which placements offered by organisation in the national internship scheme are judged appropriate and posted to the JobBridge website; her views on introducing a clear set of rules that must be adhered to by all organisations providing internships in order for them to avail of free labour; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21818/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The objective of JobBridge, the national internship scheme, is to assist individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. It will provide those seeking employment with an opportunity to undertake a six or nine-month internship in a host organisation. Participants will benefit from learning new skills to complement their existing skills. Participation on the scheme will assist in breaking the cycle of unemployed people being unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers whose existing skills will not be appropriate to the types of jobs that will emerge in post-recession Ireland. On completing their internships, participants will have improved their prospects of securing employment.

A host organisation participating in JobBridge must be in a position to provide a substantial commitment to its intern to ensure the provision of a quality internship. To this end, a clear set of rules has been developed to protect the intern and safeguard JobBridge from potential abuse. In addition, potential host organisations can avail of the JobBridge guidelines, toolkit and other helpful facilities available on the JobBridge website.

In order for an application from a host organisation to be put up on the JobBridge site, it must meet a number of criteria. The placement must not allow the intern to work unsupervised, he or she should accrue significant experience throughout the entire placement and an internship will not be approved where, in the absence of the intern, the organisation would need to recruit an employee to carry out the tasks identified in the internship.

Following this application process, in order for an internship to commence, a standard internship agreement must be signed by the intern and the host organisation. It specifies a number of conditions, including the number of hours worked, rest breaks and so on. To ensure compliance with the scheme, the Department of Social Protection and the employment services division of FÁS, which is operating the scheme with my Department under the national employment and entitlements service, are monitoring internships to ensure they are of sufficient quality and that both host organisations and interns are abiding by the spirit and the rules of the scheme.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In this regard, each host organisation will be required to submit monthly compliance reports verifying that the internship is proceeding as set out in the standard internship agreement. The employment services division of FÁS will also undertake random site visits of internships as part of this process. In addition, a whistleblowing feature has been introduced whereby any individual who suspects that an internship may be in breach of the scheme's criteria may contact the national call centre. All such claims will be investigated. The control mechanisms and conditions have been put in place to protect the integrity of the scheme and to ensure the intern and host organisation both benefit from the arrangement.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Minister or her reply. Will FÁS check to ensure job placements meet the criteria?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Yes.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I have a concern. I saw an advertisement on the Internet for a forklift driver who must have a forklift licence. Such a person would replace someone who should have a job. Given that the State is paying all the money, the employer is getting someone to drive his forklift for nothing. Another advertisement was for someone to help a gardener weed. That helper will replace a labourer and will not learn much from weeding flowers.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I must call the Minister.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The guidelines listed on the website state that the work environment should provide practical tasks to enable an individual to apply the particular skills he or she wishes to learn or enhance and the opportunity to obtain wider product or service knowledge in established networks for future employment. Should this not be a compulsory condition rather than a general guideline imposed on participating organisations, given that the entire scheme is paid for by the State?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Wallace and other Deputies who are following the website and closely monitoring the positions on offer. Their efforts are important and I have a number of volunteers, departmental staff and people in the labour services side of FÁS doing likewise. Some 1,100 opportunities are available on the JobBridge website. Given their range, the Deputy will agree that many of them are good and there has been a significant number of expressions of interest in them from people wishing to become interns.

I recognise what the Deputy is saying. In some situations, people might try to migrate an ordinary job, one that is not an internship experience as most people would understand it, on to the website. I do not have the exact figures, but approximately 30 or 40 such advertisements have been taken down from the website. We must continually monitor the site to try to ensure the quality of job offerings.

The Deputy asked why the regulations were not more specific. We are trying to provide a general template for a range of different internship opportunities without being so restrictive as to prevent people, whatever their level of training or educational qualification, from taking up interesting internships. The people interested in being interns range from postgraduates to those who have completed various levels of FETAC training.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister can see where I am coming from. There must be a follow-up. Unless the intern is picking up a skill, the scheme is being abused by employers to get cheap labour.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We could create a few internships monitoring the website.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department monitors the website, as do the people in FÁS. This is an important job.

Internationally, internships have a good history of filling in the gap for someone who has qualified at a certain level but in a recession cannot get a job because he does not have experience and cannot get experience because he cannot enter a job. We want to stop that catch-22 situation.

There is monitoring at each stage and, ultimately, when an intern is matched with a host employer, an agreement is made between the two of them, including an agreement to be monitored and to check, for instance, on the intern's side if he shows up, because he will get his social welfare and an extra €50 per week, and on the employer's side that the internship delivers what it said it would deliver. In addition, if interns have problems they can complain and if an employer abuses the internship scheme, he will not be granted further internships.

We are still at the start-up stage but I appreciate Deputies monitoring this. It is helpful because it is the first time we have done it and there has been a hugely positive response. I want this to work as well as possible.