Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm that jobsbridge interns were used by An Garda Síochána, with the agreement of her Department, to work in the highly sensitive area of Garda Vetting, which included research in respect of personnel working in a full-time, part-time, and voluntary capacity in a position in a registered organisation, through which they have unsupervised access to children and/or vulnerable adults; and her views on whether this is an appropriate use of interns. [4452/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Since it came into operation on 1 July 2011, significant progress in the JobBridge scheme saw 13,960 internships commence by 24 January 2013. There are 5,563 interns on the scheme, with a further 1,888 internships advertised on www.jobbridge.ie.

The Department verifies the suitability of internships before they are advertised to ensure they will provide real work experience to enable an intern to develop new skills that will enhance the intern's ability to secure employment. As such, the Department expects interns to be given real and substantial experience of the host organisation's workplace so the intern is seen by future potential employers as having had real work experience, including real responsibility and accountability.

It is a matter for the host organisation, including in this case An Garda Síochána, to determine if the work involved is appropriate to the intern, taking account of its business needs, including confidentiality and sensitivity of the information to which they will have access, be that commercially sensitive information in the case of a private sector organisation, publicly sensitive information in the case of a public sector organisation or personal information. The duty of care of all host organisations in respect of sensitive and confidential information and in respect of training and proper protocols with regard to access to and use of this information extends to people on internship programmes.

In the case of the Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda Síochána, as is the case for all of the Civil Service, the requirements of the Official Secrets Act apply to all workers, including interns recruited under JobBridge. It is an offence under section 4 of this Act to disclose information obtained in the course of work unless this disclosure is duly authorised.

I am informed that An Garda Síochána has hosted 13 interns for positions including general office administrator receptionist, project accountant, legal policing researcher and graphic designer.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Of those 13 interns, eight were assigned to duties in the Garda vetting unit, of whom six have completed their internship and two are on placement. The Department has received assurances from the Department of Justice and Equality that these interns were not involved in conducting vetting checks on vetting applicants nor had they access to these data. These interns were engaged in a clerical capacity only.

While the moratorium on recruitment in the Civil Service means that interns cannot progress to a job in the Civil Service, it is clear from the Indecon report on JobBridge that experience in the public sector is very valuable and progression rates are good. The Deputy will know that the Department, as part of its ongoing work to protect the intern and to ensure the integrity of the JobBridge scheme, has introduced a variety of control measures and criteria. Among these measures is the ongoing monitoring of internships by the Department of Social Protection. This involves the regular review of monthly compliance reports and the conducting of random monitoring site visits to ensure the host and intern are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme.

In 2012, two monitoring visits were conducted on internships within An Garda Síochána, and one monitoring visit was conducted on internships within the Department of Justice and Equality. In all three cases, the monitoring report found the internships to have been conducted in a satisfactory manner.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Given that Garda vetting can determine the future employment prospects or otherwise of individuals whose organisations or companies have applied for vetting, does the Minister think it was appropriate to use interns to process or be in any way part of the processing of the confidential and sensitive material being assessed and processed by the Garda vetting unit, given that not all of this material is necessarily in the public domain? Details disclosed during Garda vetting include details of all convictions or prosecutions, successful or otherwise, and pending or completed prosecutions in the State or elsewhere. Is it appropriate for JobBridge to be used in this way to fill positions vacant due to the public sector recruitment embargo and to carry out policing duties? Does the Minister agree that this is a form of yellow pack policing or public service?

I have been critical of JobBridge but my point has always been to ensure that the internship experience is enhanced and to prevent abuse of these young or older jobseekers. Does the Minister believe that if a criterion is imposed, it needs to be properly resourced? In this case, the Garda vetting unit has not been fully resourced. Is she sure about the work carried out by those interns in that process and have interns been vetting other interns? That is the implication because everyone would have to have been interns.

In respect of the suggestion that interns have a promise of future prospects of employment, there is no possibility of their being recruited into the Garda vetting unit in the future given the Garda and public sector recruitment embargo so the applicants are being sold a pup.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The redeployment and use of staff is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner in conjunction with his senior management. Neither the Minister for Justice and Equality nor I have a role or function in that matter. The allocation of all resources, including civilian personnel such as interns, is a matter for Garda management. In this case, I am advised by An Garda Síochána via the Department of Justice and Equality that no JobBridge interns were engaged at the Garda central vetting unit to conduct vetting checks.

I noted earlier that the Garda Síochána hosted 13 interns, of whom eight were assigned to duties in the Garda vetting unit. Six of the latter have completed their internships and two are on placement. My Department has received assurances from the Department of Justice and Equality that the interns were not involved in conducting checks on vetting applicants nor had they access to these data. They were engaged solely in a clerical capacity.

The Deputy asked whether such work experience is valuable, whether in the public or private sector. The Indecon survey shows that more than 50% of people who completed JobBridge internships went on to further work. In respect of the public sector, which faces a difficulty with the embargo, over 40% of people who took on internships in public bodies were placed subsequently in employment. By working in quality internships these mostly younger people got references and work experience, which are very valuable in helping them to find subsequent employment. I cannot see why the Deputy and Sinn Féin are so opposed to young people being assisted in getting work, particularly young graduates who have just come out of college and find it difficult in today's jobs market to find a work placement because they have no previous work experience. The internship gives them work experience.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The abuse of the internship is wrong. The Minister misunderstood what I said.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Ó Snodaigh -----

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I support JobBridge if it offers an enhanced job seeking mechanism. It is not such a mechanism if it is being abused, whether in the State sector or private sector.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I remind Deputies and the Minister that we have a programme to complete which involves five priority questions in 30 minutes. We are now well over the time allotted to these questions. We either conduct this session in accordance with the rules and protocols or it becomes a free-for-all. What do Members want? Please help me to do my job.