Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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5. To ask the Minister for Social Protection following the Indecon report into the JobBridge Scheme which revealed that an estimated 240 of the 7,300 companies surveyed are availing of the scheme to displace paid jobs and only 15 companies have since been banned from participating in the scheme; the measures she is putting in place to identify and exclude other companies engaged in this practice. [26240/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The aim of JobBridge is to assist individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. The scheme has made very significant progress since it came into operation in July 2011, with 17,609 internship placements having commenced to date. There are currently 6,104 participants on the scheme and 2,218 vacancies available on the JobBridge website. The independent evaluation conducted by Indecon economic consultants, which I published recently, found that 61% of interns who complete placements secure employment within five months. These progression outcomes are exceptionally positive and compare very favourably with European averages in this area. The report does not state that 240 of the 7,300 companies surveyed are availing of the JobBridge scheme to displace paid jobs. The number of companies surveyed was 3,021 and the report finds that displacement only occurs in only a very small number of cases – just 3% of the overall number of placements within the organisations responding to the survey.

The Department takes breaches of the JobBridge scheme very seriously, and 17 companies have been disqualified from participating in the scheme due to breaches of the terms and conditions relating to it. This action was taken by the Department following detailed investigations. While 17 companies have been disqualified, more than 7,500 host organisations have commenced internships and, therefore, the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme. To protect interns and ensure the integrity of the JobBridge scheme, a variety of control measures and criteria are in place. These are designed to ensure an internship does not displace an existing position, that it provides appropriate training and development experience and that suitable mentoring and support is given to the intern.

To ensure both the host organisation and intern are abiding by the rules of the scheme, we monitor progress on an ongoing basis. This involves the regular review of monthly compliance reports and random monitoring site visits to facilitate discussions with both interns and host organisations. We have carried out in excess of 2,000 monitoring visits to date and 98% of these have been of a satisfactory nature. Where non-compliance is discovered, remedial action is taken.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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To provide an accurate assessment, one would be obliged to state that many of the 61% who secured employment were in jobs which had nothing to do with their internships. Only one in five secured employment with the companies with which they did their internships. Of course, a large number of people did not complete their internships in the first instance. Indecon's survey reveals that 3% of the 7,300 companies involved in the scheme admitted they were displacing workers. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that in the region of 220 - which is a quite considerable number - are abusing the scheme. There are probably many more firms which do not admit to doing so.

Is the Minister aware that the extension of the scheme to small enterprises in the craft and design sector has people talking about free labour being available? I received a communication from an honest jeweller who wants to take on a worker on a part-time basis at €10 per hour and who states that proceeding with an internship in this regard would be a complete lie because the job involves low-skilled manufacturing work which can be learned in a week. I am of the view that large numbers of interns are going to be taken on in this sector and this will create huge problems for honest employers. In addition, those taken on as interns in the sector are going to be abused. This will happen on the Minister's watch.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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As I travel throughout Ireland, I continually meet individuals, employers and organisations who attest to the fact that the intern scheme has been a positive experience for those on both sides. Those who employ people often inform me that they never previously appreciated the sheer calibre and quality of many individuals who, unfortunately, are currently without employment. JobBridge is designed to give such individuals an opportunity to obtain work experience which will allow them to get onto the ladder of employment. If the Deputy has read the Indecon report, he will know that one of the reasons people leave JobBridge is because in many instances they work for a relatively short period of their internships in their host organisations and are then offered further employment. Many firms have identified the calibre of the people on internships and have taken them on as a result. Approximately 40% of internships are with public or publicly funded organisations. As a result of the embargo on recruitment, it is not possible for many of those organisations to take people on. However, such is the calibre, experience and quality of many of those on internships, they tend to move on - as the Indecon report shows - to further employment. This is due to the fact that they have either developed networks or are in contact with people who recognise that they are individuals of skill and talent who merit being employed by firms with vacancies. JobBridge has been a very positive experience for many people.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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There is widespread anecdotal evidence - from people who participated on this scheme and those who have examined some of the so-called internships on offer - that JobBridge is being highly abused as a means of procuring cheap labour. Furthermore, 29% of the employers surveyed said that, even if they had not taken on interns, it was highly or fairly likely that they would have taken on employees in any event. I put it to the Minister that what is needed is not trickery with figures to massage the tragic situation relating to unemployment but rather real measures and investment aimed at creating jobs. The Minister made a name for herself three weeks ago when she declared that austerity has reached its limits. However, she has done nothing practical or concrete in the context of putting the consequences of that conclusion into effect. An hour and a half ago, she voted to cut the salaries and alter the working conditions of low and middle income workers and take more money out of the domestic economy. I put it to her, therefore, that legitimate measures relating to and real investment in emergency job creation in the areas of infrastructure and services are required, not this excuse for a scheme, in order to dent the massively high unemployment figures in a genuine way.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I was very happy to co-author an article in yesterday's edition of The Guardian in which I repeated what I said in my address to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, namely, that Europe must take action to reflate member states' economies and get people back to work. I am a practical person and during my entire time in politics, what I have been interested in is young people. I worked for a long period in third level education and I am of the view that it is terrible to see wonderfully qualified young people from Donegal to Dublin to Cork emerging from college into a very tight jobs market. These individuals have qualifications but they do not have work experience. Internships are meant to allow them to obtain such experience. I am aware that the Deputy has grave difficulties with this concept but in other countries where it operates extremely well, it allows people to obtain a degree of experience in order that they might subsequently find work. People are doing so across all job and placement schemes. In the context of community employment, of which I believe the Deputy is on record as being broadly in favour, one must always be very careful with regard to the issue of displacement.

Indecon is an independent consultancy company which, I understand, attracts very strong and positive recommendations. It carried out a survey and interviewed people in real time at my request. I did not want to wait five years to discover the position. I wanted to be able to give people such as the Deputy, who are obviously thoughtful about schemes of this nature, the actual figures involved. Those figures are not mine, they are those presented by independent consultants. I suggest that they offer food for thought as to how we can assist people in their 20s and 30s who have emerged from college and who cannot find jobs in this particularly tight employment market.