Written answers

Thursday, 14 December 2017

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

National Internship Scheme Data

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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707. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons in nationally accredited internships; the number of internships in the public and private sectors; the regulatory framework concerning persons in internship schemes or nationally accredited internships; and the national minimum wage [54129/17]

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is not responsible for nationally accredited internships, so cannot provide the information requested in respect of them.

The Department has responsibility for First Steps, which, while not an accredited internship, is a work experience programme. The programme is targeted at young unemployed people aged 18-24 who face significant barriers in their efforts to gain employment – people who even during the Celtic Tiger period would have found it difficult to get a foothold on the career ladder.

Host organisations are encouraged to provide them with the opportunity to learn and develop basic work and social skills in a supportive environment while on a work placement.

The programme is entirely voluntary. The standard duration of a placement is three months, with an option to extend to six or nine months. Participants receive an allowance equivalent to their underlying social welfare payment plus an additional top-up allowance of €52.50 per week as a contribution towards expenses arising from their participation on the programme. Participants are supported by a by a mentor assigned by the Host Organisation and dedicated case worker from the Department and.

The programme is open to organisations in private, public, and voluntary and community sectors. There are currently 75 participants on the programme - 67 on placements in the private and community/voluntary sector, and 8 in the public sector.

Host Organisations are required to agree Terms and Conditions and agree a Standard Agreement with the participant outlining the intended learning outcomes and the terms and conditions of the placement. Comprehensive guidelines are available on the Department’s website at .

First Steps is now closed to new applications to facilitate an orderly wind down of the programme in preparation for the introduction of the new Youth Employment Support Scheme in Quarter 2, 2018. Participants on the new programme will receive a payment equivalent to the net minimum wage for the hours of attendance.

The National Minimum Wage, currently €9.25 per hour, will increase to €9.55 per hour from 1 January 2018. Figures released by the Central Statistics Office in April 2017, based on questions relating to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) included in the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) in Quarters 2, 3 and 4 2016, indicate that an average of approximately 155,100 employees reported earning NMW or less for each of the three quarters from Quarter 2 to Quarter 4 in 2016. This represents approximately one in ten employees. The CSO suggest that some caution is advised in comparing these results to data collected directly from business enterprises in that this is self-reported income. ESRI research, based on 2014 and 2015 (latest available) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) data, showed the incidence of employees on the NMW at 5.1 and 5.5 percent respectively (based on the then NMW of €8.65).These figures represent approximately one in twenty employees.

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