Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

300. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a list of schools currently utilising the JobBridge scheme to employ interns in a teaching capacity. [48862/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

303. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who fail to complete JobBridge internships; the number who cease an internship to take up employment; the number who leave for other reasons. [48927/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

304. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of companies or employers that have been blacklisted from the jobBridge scheme. [48928/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

305. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of occasions on which the whistleblowing feature of the JobBridge scheme has been invoked; the number of complaints that have been made to the national call centre alleging breaches or abuses of the JobBridge programme; the number of these complaints that relate to displacement, poor quality internships or other breaches of the programme. [48929/13]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

364. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have participated in the JobBridge internship programme to date broken down by county; the number who have progressed to paid employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49563/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 300, 303 to 305, inclusive, and 364 together.

The JobBridge Scheme was launched on 1^st July 2011. A total of 23,235 placements have commenced to-date. Please see Table 1 for a breakdown by county. The evaluation report conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants found that 61% of all participants progressed into paid employment within 5 months of completing their internship. This is one of the best progression outcomes in Europe for work placement schemes.

While 47% of placements are completed in full, 53% of placements finish early. According to the Indecon evaluation report, the main reason cited by participants for early completion (according to 63.1% of participants) was that they secured employment while 32.7% of participants cited dissatisfaction with their placement as the reason for early completion. The progression outcomes into employment for early finishers are very encouraging. However, in order to address the dissatisfaction levels, I have extended the number of placements available on the Scheme and increased the maximum cumulative duration of internships. This measure has been introduced to give jobseekers that are dissatisfied with their choice of internship more flexibility in finding a suitable alternative placement. I have also increased the number of on-site monitoring visits.

The Department is not in a position to release the names of schools currently participating in the Scheme. However, I can advise the Deputy that while there are currently over 6,300 jobseekers participating on the Scheme, only 22 placements are being undertaken in a teaching capacity.

Over 10,000 companies have participated in the Scheme, of which, 31 companies have been disqualified from participating due to breaches of the Scheme. The over-whelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the Scheme.

The total number of JobBridge complaints received by the Department since the scheme commenced in July 2011 is 313. These complaints relate primarily to the following areas: - Standard Agreement not completed/adhered to; - Inadequate mentoring/support; - Inadequate training and development; - Displacement related issues; - Poor quality advertisements; - Intern working excessive hours; - Non-compliance with Scheme criteria.

All such complaints are fully investigated. In addition, my Department has conducted over 3,700 monitoring visits to-date. Encouragingly, 98% of these visits are satisfactory. Remedial action is taken in all cases of non-compliance.

Table 1: Breakdown By County