Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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89. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to review and enhance the JobBridge scheme. [48459/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Indecon Evaluation Report published by the Taoiseach and myself on 1^stMay 2013 provided a number of key recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the scheme.

The Department has already taken a number of key actions in response to these recommendations including increasing the number of internships that a jobseeker may undertake, improving the Department’s quality and control checks and providing even more support to interns with a significant increase in monitoring and site visits being conducted by Department officials. Codes of practice have also been developed to improve the quality of placements and key pilots have been implemented in the arts and crafts sectors.

The Department has also commenced a process to redevelop the JobBridge website’s design, application and content thereby improving the client experience. I will continue to review all aspects of the scheme and changes to improve the quality of the scheme will continue to be implemented where appropriate.