Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, for attending this evening. I will be brief because I am last, but not least. I am acutely aware of how busy the Minister is. I commend the Government on the JobBridge scheme and how well it is working. The six-month placement, which I have used in my company, works very well. Some employers in the private sector may have taken advantage of the JobBridge scheme. I would not like to see young interns used for an extra three months as a cheap form of employment.

I wish to discuss the opportunity I believe lies in the public sector. The internship scheme is wonderful for young people who might have been sitting at home unemployed and who are desperate to get their foot onto the first rung of the ladder. There is a great opportunity to enter internships. Some Departments are seeking extensions for their interns. This may be where a project has become bigger than envisaged or where an intern is doing so well that there is an opportunity to give him or her further work and keep him or her on for nine months, thus resulting in a superb experience for the intern. I ask the Minister to examine how JobBridge is working in the public sector and whether considerable flexibility can be allowed such that a young intern can get an extension of three months.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The national internship scheme, JobBridge, was launched on 1 July 2011. Therefore, we are approaching the first anniversary. In practice, as Senator O'Brien is probably aware, the first internships took place in September of last year. The scheme is open to organisations in the private, public and community and voluntary sectors. I thank the significant number of firms, particularly in the private sector, that offered to host interns. There has been much criticism of the scheme but, by and large, the feedback from participants has been extremely positive. Those who have monitored the scheme extensively on social media have in many ways done a public service because I do not believe they appreciated initially that the scheme is not just for graduates. When people use the phrase "intern", they often believe it pertains only to graduates. I was always very interested in having no age limit, other than that one must be over 18, and no qualification limit such that different people at different levels would be able to obtain experience. More than 15,000 employers of various kinds have offered to host interns. This indicates the pent-up interest among employers to give people an opportunity. The feedback has been positive.

The scheme provides internship opportunities of either six or nine months for unemployed individuals at all skill levels. It aims to assist individuals in breaking the cycle where they are unable to get a job without experience by providing them with an opportunity to gain valuable experience, relevant knowledge and skills within a working environment.

To date, the scheme has made significant progress. Slightly more than 8,000 internship placements have commenced since the launch of JobBridge in July 2011. Our target was to have 5,000 placements commenced within one year. While the scheme has its critics, it has clearly been popular. There are currently 4,896 interns undertaking internship placements and in excess of 2,000 internship posts are currently advertised on the JobBridge website at www.jobbridge.ie. These figures show the strong level of interest in the scheme, both from a host organisation perspective and the perspective of prospective interns.

JobBridge is the first initiative to be rolled out under the new national employment and entitlements service, NEES, which is a key commitment in the programme for Government. In assisting individuals to bridge the gap between unemployment and the world of work JobBridge provides those seeking employment with the opportunity to undertake a six or nine month internship in a host organisation. It aims to offer individuals of all skill levels, ranging from those who left school early to highly qualified graduates, a unique opportunity to develop new skills to complement their existing skills and to earn valuable experience. I have met graduates, postgraduates and even a number of individuals with post-doctorate qualifications who are participating in the programme. On completing their internship, participants will have much improved their prospects of securing employment. In the current labour market environment JobBridge provides individuals with a unique opportunity to secure work experience in a new field and enables people to break the cycle. For instance, an internship may provide unemployed workers with skills acquired in construction, a sector which has lost many jobs, with an opportunity to try a new field.

The establishment of the national employment and entitlements service, under the management of the Department of Social Protection, is a crucial element of our improved targeting of resources for work placement, training and education for the unemployed. I am confident the service will provide the framework within which the reinvigorated national employment action plan will deliver activation policies and priorities.

The current guidelines governing JobBridge provide that a participant may avail of a placement on an internship work experience opportunity for a period of six months - 26 weeks - or nine months - 39 weeks. It is a matter for the host organisation to advertise the proposed duration of the placement, which is completely at its discretion. I understand the majority of host organisations offer the longer period of nine months or 39 weeks. Many employers have told me they would like the internships to be longer than nine months. In this context, it is important to note that an internship opportunity is intended to act as a probationary period to establish if the intern is suitable to take up a permanent role with the host organisation. It is not intended to act as a probationary period to determine if the intern is suitable to undertake a further period of internship with the same company. For this reason, host organisations need to make a decision on the duration of the internship before it commences.

Overall, it is important to note that individuals may avail of a maximum of two JobBridge internships. However, the total cumulative time may not exceed nine months or 39 weeks over the two year period. Employers who retain JobBridge interns in paid employment, of whom there are a significant number, receive an 18 month holiday in respect of employer PRSI. This benefit appears to be little known among employers and I am anxious to ensure they become aware of the significant saving that can be made from taking on a person on a paid basis.

My Department continues to monitor and review the operation of the JobBridge scheme. We have appointed external consultants to carry out an independent evaluation of the scheme. I am anxious that all labour market activation schemes are subject to real time evaluation. In the past, much of the evaluation of schemes occurred several years after people have completed the relevant programme. The external evaluation of JobBridge has already commenced.

Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)
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Is Senator O'Brien happy with the Minister's reply?

Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)
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I am extremely happy and congratulate the Minister on her professionalism and aggressive, business-like approach in having the evaluation done immediately. I agree with everything she said about the private sector. The JobBridge scheme is wide open to abuse. As an employer, I am ashamed to admit I was not aware of the PRSI holiday available to employers who permanently employ someone who completes a JobBridge internship.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Senator will have to advertise that information.

Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)
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I will start shouting about it tomorrow. We are all aware of the problems in the public service arising from the moratorium on recruitment. I have encountered cases of public service organisations taking on JobBridge interns for six months, only to find that they had sufficient work to continue the internship for a further three months. This is a wonderful experience for the intern. The Department will probably tweak the scheme after the first year. I ask the Minister not to change the position regarding the private sector but to give the public service greater flexibility in this regard. I sit on the audit committee of Kildare County Council. Given the evolution and changes under way in local and national government, it is important to reform and take different approaches. It is in that spirit that I ask the Minister to provide for a little more flexibility in the scheme. One does not always know in advance if one has nine months' work for a person.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I thank Senator O'Brien for her comments. I will specifically ask for the point she raises to be addressed in the evaluation. As she noted, the embargo makes it difficult in the context of public sector placements for interns to immediately secure employment in a public organisation. Nevertheless, there is a certain placement rate because opportunities also arise in the public sector.

At the end of May we secured an additional 1,000 places on the scheme, which will increase the number of placements to 6,000. The purpose of the increase is to make provision for potential applications from lone parents and people with a disability. Some people may not be interested in the community and voluntary sector, which is where activation schemes have tended to be available for lone parents and people with a disability. However, many lone parents who became aware of opportunities in small and medium sized businesses contacted me to express an interest in pitching for such opportunities. For this reason, we opened up the scheme at the end of last month. We will find out over the summer if this decision has resulted in lone parents and people with disabilities benefiting from many of the interesting opportunities to emerge in the small and medium sized business sector. I expect a significant number of entrepreneurs to emerge from this process as people avail of opportunities to work with others in the development phase of a business. There is nothing to compare with acquiring experience in the business environment and using it later in one's own business, if one is so inclined.