Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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219. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details of the monitoring and enforcement regime around the JobBridge scheme to ensure the scheme is not being abused by employers; if she will also provide any available figures on the numbers of complaints, infringements, checks, penalties or investigations relating to the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2783/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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JobBridge has made very significant progress since it came into operation on 1 July 2011. As at 15 January 2015, a total of 36,603 internships have commenced with 6,291 participants currently on a JobBridge placement, and 816 internship posts currently advertised on the JobBridge website. To date, almost 16,000 host organisations have participated in the scheme.

A rigorous monitoring system is in place to ensure that the JobBridge Scheme is not abused. All internships are subject to monthly compliance checks, and more than 9,000 on-site monitoring visits have been conducted since the scheme was introduced. These on-site monitoring visits are to host organisations either chosen at random or in response to concerns raised by interns or others. These on-site visits indicate that 97% of internships are proceeding satisfactorily and in line with the established criteria, and the vast majority of host organisations have been found to be compliant with the scheme rules.

Since the introduction of JobBridge, a total of 520 complaints have been received regarding the scheme. All complaints are taken seriously and are investigated as a matter of urgency.

At present, a total of 43 host organisations are excluded indefinitely from participation, and a number of others are excluded for shorter periods of time. The reasons for exclusion from participation in the scheme vary and include issues such as poor quality internships, that there is evidence of employment displacement, that the internship as operated did not reflect that which was advertised and that the Standard Agreement was not completed as required.