Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

JobBridge, the national internship scheme, has made significant progress since it commenced on 1 July 2011. As of 6 June 2013, 17,986 individuals had commenced JobBridge internships, 6,045 were in active internships and 2,078 internship opportunities were advertised on the JobBridge website. The independent evaluation of the scheme carried out by Indecon International economic consultants and published by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Social Protection on 1 May showed that 61% of those who completed an internship five or more months ago had progressed into employment. These progression outcomes are exceptionally positive and compare extremely favourably with European averages in this area.

The aim of JobBridge is to assist individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work. In the current labour market, JobBridge provides individuals with a unique opportunity to secure work experience in a new field. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. Interns gain valuable work experience which enhances their skills and competencies while the organisations involved benefit from fresh talent and ideas from people who could be excellent future employees.

The Department of Social Protection is committed to the continual monitoring and review of the JobBridge scheme, including its eligibility criteria, on an ongoing basis. Any individual who wishes to report a suspected abuse of the JobBridge scheme is invited to contact the JobBridge team directly. All such claims are fully investigated. In addition to investigations, the Department carries out random monitoring visits and requires all host organisations to complete monthly compliance protocols. More than 2,100 monitoring visits have been conducted to date and, very encouragingly, 98% of these visits have been satisfactory. Remedial action is taken in cases of non-compliance.

As of 11 June, there were 487 interns in the education sector. The Department takes the view that internships in the education sector are a special case where interns, who under the terms of the scheme are entitled to receive a high quality real workplace experience, are at risk of missing out on that high quality internship experience during academic holidays. I accept there may be some circumstances where an education sector internship experience would not be affected by the academic holidays but, as the House will appreciate, it would not be feasible to review and examine all placements advertised within the education sector on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, a clear and transparent operational decision was made that all such placements must coincide with the academic year. Deadlines have been introduced, before and after which education sector internships will not be approved.

Applications are dealt with by the national contact centre in Edenderry, County Offaly, from 1 August to mid-September in the case of nine-month internships or to mid-December in the case of six-month internships. Given the large number of applications processed by the national contact centre and to ensure internships in the education sector are not disrupted by the long summer holiday period, the Department operates a window system for receipt and processing of applications for internships in the education sector. For the academic year 2013-14, this window commences on 1 August and terminates on 6 December 2013. Unfortunately, it is not possible to vary these dates as to do so could result in internship periods running into the summer holiday period in 2014. This decision was clearly advertised on the home page of the JobBridge website and every effort is made by the Department to provide reasonable notice of this arrangement to potential education sector host organisations.

The Department works with stakeholders to make JobBridge as easy to administer as possible, but our first concern is to ensure interns are not idle, abused or deprived of the high quality real workplace internship experience they deserve. It is in the interest of the taxpayer as well as the jobseeker that we maximise future employment opportunities.