Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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185. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the JobBridge education sector review; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5733/15]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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195. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the application procedure for young persons for the new First Steps programme. [5980/15]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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196. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there will be a financial consequence in respect of any failure to apply for, or refusal to agree to participate on the new First Steps programme. [5981/15]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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202. To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 184 of 3 February 2015, if she will provide, in tabular form, the dates on which all library and archiving related JobBridge positions in publicly funded bodies were advertised and the date on which employment in each of these positions commenced since the establishment of the JobBridge scheme. [6055/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 185, 195, 196 and 202 together.

JobBridge has made significant progress since its introduction in July 2011. At any one time, the scheme provides up to 8,500 work experience placements for jobseekers, in organisations in the private, public, community and voluntary sectors.

To date, over 37,000 internship placements having commenced, there are currently 6,194 interns on the programme and a further 1,386 positions are advertised on the JobBridge website.

In September 2014, the Department’s attention was drawn to an unusually large number of cleaner/caretaker posts being advertised by schools, which raised concerns regarding the potential displacement of paid employees in the Education Sector. In light of such concerns, I asked for a report to be prepared on the use of JobBridge by the Education Sector with a view to establishing a set of guidelines to prevent inappropriate use of the scheme, and in particular to prevent displacement by interns of positions which should be filled by paid staff. This report has been finalised by the review group, and is currently under consideration.

There is no application procedure for jobseekers for the First Steps programme. Jobseekers will be selected, brought into the activation process and referred to the programme by their case worker based upon circumstances, activation needs and meeting the eligibility criteria.

Participation of jobseekers on the First Steps programme, once referred, will be non-discretionary and subject to conditionality and penalty rate legislation should they fail without good cause to attend in accordance with the activation process.

Further to Parliamentary Question No. 184 of 3 February 2015, statistics matching commencement dates with advertisement dates is not routinely prepared by the Department and so is not available at present, however, on this occasion, I have asked officials to collate the data requested and send it on to the Deputy. The Department will forward a reply directly to the Deputy as soon as possible. In the meantime, I am providing a table setting out details of the host organisations, internship role, start date and current status.