Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 2: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the recent media focus on the jobbridge scheme exposing displacement of real jobs; and the steps she will take to prevent such displacement and exploitation. [29196/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobBridge, the national internship scheme, is part of the Government's job initiative and was launched on 1 July 2011. As of last Friday, a total of 2,477 internship opportunities with host organisations were available on the website. To date 1,769 interns have commenced an internship under the JobBridge scheme. Of these, 625 individuals have converted their work placement programme placement into a JobBridge internship to avail of the €50 top-up. In other words, some 1,100 people on internships had not been doing any other job placement or internship beforehand. The aim of JobBridge is to assist individuals bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. JobBridge aims to offer individuals of all skill levels, ranging from those who left school early to highly qualified graduates and postgraduates, a unique opportunity to develop new skills and earn valuable experience. JobBridge can offer a diverse range of jobseekers a chance that will at the very least improve their prospects of securing employment in future.

Feedback on the scheme has revealed that there have been many excellent internships for non-graduates in the retail, catering and services sectors where participants are learning new skills, staying in touch with the labour market and putting themselves in a better position to get a full-time job. Measures to minimise displacement include the following: all host organisations must declare in their application that they are not displacing an employee and that they have no vacancy in the specific area; the JobBridge team, part of the FÁS team in County Offaly, checks all applications against recent vacancies advertised on the FÁS Jobs Ireland website; and if the JobBridge team suspects that displacement may be an issue, it can liaise with regional FÁS management to find out more information on the company.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

In order for all applications from host organisations to be approved they must also meet a number of criteria so as to ensure the potential internships are of sufficient quality. These include the following: that the internship does not allow the intern to work unsupervised; and that the intern accrues significant experience throughout the entire internship. In order for an internship to commence a standard internship agreement must be signed by both the intern and the host organisation. This agreement clearly stipulates the terms of the internship and states the specific learning outcomes the intern will receive over the course of their internship.

To ensure compliance with the scheme, my Department and the JobBridge team are monitoring internships to ensure that both host organisations and interns are abiding by the spirit and rules of the scheme.

This involves the monitoring of monthly compliance reports which the host organisation uses to verify that the internship is proceeding as set out in the standard internship agreement. In addition, contact with the host organisations and interns including random site visits will begin shortly as part of this process.

The scheme also has a whistle blowing feature, where any individual who suspects that an internship may be in breach of the scheme's criteria, including in cases of suspected displacement or poor quality, may contact the national call centre. All such claims will be investigated. Where it is proven that displacement has occurred in a host organisation their internship opportunities will be removed and they will not be allowed to participate in JobBridge.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I spent five to ten minutes yesterday browsing the website, during which I found 11 objectionable new advertisements. Has the Minister looked at the website? She will see internships that clearly displace what should be real jobs and wages and exploit people. Some of the internships include posts as retail assistants, car valets, catering assistants and general maintenance assistants. The posts are dressed up in fancy language to give the impression they are meaningful internships but cursory research dispels that myth. A retail assistant post based in Waterford city claims the intern "will also be trained in the use of highly specialized Microsoft RMS software, used for point of sale". According to the Microsoft website, the RMS software package enables employees "to learn POS procedures in minutes", not 30 hours a week over nine months.

Does the Minister agree she has failed to prevent displacement and exploitation that was an inevitable outworking of the scheme? Does she agree that some employers are using the JobBridge scheme to avoid employing people on proper terms and conditions to undertake standard functions on which their businesses and profits to date depended? Does she agree the design of the scheme facilitates this outrageous exploitation?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Over 4,000 employers have offered to host internships. JobBridge is an internship and work experience programme, not a job. Of those 4,000 employers, only 2,500 have had the request to host an internship accepted. In some cases, more must be done because the specifications do not meet the requirements. It is important to avoid displacement. In the hotel and catering industry, Fáilte Ireland has done a detailed and valuable amount of work for the hospitality sector to identify good internships and what they do.

Regarding what the Deputy describes as a low-level jobs, someone who left school without many qualifications may be interested in a different kind of job and experience to someone who is a postgraduate archaeologist. The Department and I made a decision to make JobBridge open to different levels and not to make it an internship open only to graduates and postgraduates. It is open to a wide range of people. Over 1,100 people have started internships and 625 people have transferred from the work placement programme. Feedback is positive but that does not mean there are no problems and that we do not need constant vigilance. I am sure it is providing a valuable experience to a significant number of people.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the last point about the meaningful experience. The practice to date seems to be that this is used as cheap or free labour. Does the Minister agree the scheme is a giant disincentive to job creation? Why would an employer create a real job when he or she can exploit free labour courtesy of this Government? What steps will the Minister take to ensure the experience on JobBridge is meaningful and that the employee gets full training, not three hours in nine months? This means training could be carried over to the next employment the employee will hopefully find.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are a series of monitoring processes, including the steering committee chaired by Mr. Martin Murphy, CEO of HP, which meets on a regular basis. There is also a stakeholders' group and we take into account the advice of stakeholders, including employers' organisations and trade unions. Internationally, there is recognition that a good quality internship is an opportunity for people who cannot get a job when there are very few jobs available. They cannot get a job because they do not have experience and they cannot get experience because they cannot get a job. The JobBridge was set up to get out of that catch-22. The variety of internships on offer, bearing in mind that Deputy Ó Snodaigh may have thought this applied only to graduates-----

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I did not.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----apply to people at different levels. The feedback is quite positive. Many people are voluntarily monitoring for us. There is a risk of displacement but the FÁS workers in the centre in Edenderry are doing work to make sure this aspect is dealt with at the beginning.