Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of jobbridge interns in each Department and subsidiary bodies. [11370/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Jobbridge is the National internship scheme introduced in July 2011 as a means of giving unemployed people an opportunity to secure work experience and to prove their competence to prospective employers. Under the scheme unemployed people and people with disabilities can secure work experience of either six or nine months and receive a top-up of €50 onto their weekly social welfare payment. To date over 15,000 people have benefitted from such an internship, there are currently 5,832 people working as interns and a further 2,400 internships opportunities are advertised on the Department’s website.

The positive impact of the scheme was shown in an interim evaluation conducted on behalf of the Department by Indecon International Economic Consultants. That interim evaluation, which I published on 5 October 2012, states that 61% of JobBridge finishers progressed into employment with either their host organisation or another employer within 5 months of finishing their internship. The interim report found that, of all internships, 67% were with private sector host organizations, 21% were with public sector host organizations and the balance were with host organizations in the community and voluntary sector.

With regard to the specific question raised by the Deputy I wish to advise that 232 interns took up Jobbridge internships in the Civil Service, in respect of which I have provided a break-down in a table below. A total of 3,242 placements commenced in the public sector since JobBridge came into operation. In addition to the Civil Service, those placements have been with commercial and non-commercial semi-state organizations, the Health Service Executive, Local Authorities, and various bodies in the education sector.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the Indecon interim report found that 49.9% of former public sector interns who had completed their internships were in employment at the date of the report. I am sure the Deputy will agree that this shows that, despite the public sector recruitment moratorium, the public sector is making its contribution to empowering and up-skilling interns by giving them quality real workplace experience and enhancing their skill sets, putting them on a better trajectory back to employment.

Public Sector Internships as at 28 February 2013.