Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

123. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to outline the internships, apprenticeships and graduate schemes run by his Department and public bodies under the aegis of his Department. [35486/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department has sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform to employ up to 30 paid interns, who are recruited on contracts of up to 22 months and paid on the Executive Officer standard PPC pay scale. Interns are recruited through an open, competitive process and are assigned to policy areas in the Department, including Development Cooperation and Africa Division, Legal Division and Political Division.

My Department facilitates a paid internship scheme for University of Limerick students under the university’s Cooperative Education programme. Within the remit of that programme, my Department offers six month contracts running from January to July or from July to December to four students each year following a selection process. The students are paid at the first point of the Clerical Officer standard PPC pay scale.

My Department does not run any apprenticeship programmes, however it participates in a Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform led ICT apprenticeship programme. There is currently one officer from this programme assigned to my Department.

There are no public bodies under the aegis of my Department.