Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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37. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views of the abuse of JobBridge scheme by employers who are seeking interns to cover menial tasks; her views on whether interning and gaining practical experience in a take-away or an off-licence requires working 40 hours a week for nine months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25725/13]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the remedial action that is taken when companies are found to be abusing the jobbridge scheme; and her plans to stop displacement in employment as a result of the jobbridge scheme. [25726/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 50 together.

JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme, was launched on 1st July 2011. The Scheme has made very significant progress. As at 24th May 2013, 17,609 internships have commenced to-date. There are currently 6,104 jobseekers undertaking internship opportunities. In addition, there are 2,218 internship opportunities available across a wide number of occupational sectors and geographic areas being hosted on the website. All these opportunities are advertised on the JobBridge website www.jobbridge.ie

The Department takes breaches of the Scheme very seriously and 17 companies have been disqualified from participating in JobBridge due to breaches of the terms and conditions of the Scheme. This action was taken by the Department following detailed investigations. The following were the key breaches of the Scheme and reasons for disqualification:

- Standard Agreement not completed

- Appropriate Mentoring/Development not being provided

- Not adhering to Compliance Requirements

- Displacement Issues

- Failure to provide reference to intern

However, it is important to highlight that the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the Scheme. In fact, over 7,500 host organisations have commenced interns and only 17 companies have been disqualified due to breaches of the Scheme. The Department have strong and robust monitoring controls in place and over 2,000 monitoring visits have been conducted to-date. Encouragingly, 98% of these visits were of a satisfactory nature. Remedial action is taken in cases of non-compliance up to and including disqualification from participating in the Scheme.

It is worth highlighting that unemployed people at all skill levels have an equal right to an activation measure and there are internship opportunities available at all levels and in all sectors to address this. In the case of all internships, the Standard Agreement must be completed by both the Intern and the Host Organisation and must specify the learning outcomes that the intern will attain. A recent independent evaluation conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants found that 61% of interns progress to paid employment after completing their internship. This outcome is among the best in Europe, where progression rates for similar internship schemes average just 34%. The evaluation report also found that:

- 89% of interns stated that JobBridge had given them new skills

- Interns found that they also benefited from: an increase in their self-confidence; the opportunity to gain quality work experience; the opportunity to establish a network of contacts.

The Indecon evaluation clearly demonstrates that JobBridge is delivering for thousands of jobseekers by providing them with valuable opportunities to gain relevant work experience, knowledge and skills in a workplace environment.