Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)

I want to briefly raise the issue of internships in this country. At the moment there is a lot of unemployment here and we should welcome internship programmes. Recently I carried out a survey on internship programmes and interns in different organisations and found that a large number of them feel undervalued. Jobs are also advertised but suddenly an internship with the same job specifications is notified and companies are taking advantage of unemployed people, recent graduates and young people. I seek a debate on the issue. It may not seem like a huge issue but I know that it is following my research over the past number of weeks. I would be grateful if the Leader could ask for a debate on internships when next the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is in attendance.