Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 February 2013
159. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider a complaint in relation to the operation of the JobBridge programme (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9161/13]
View answerA number of controls are in place to address the type of issue referred to in the question. These controls are designed to try to ensure that the internship does not displace an existing position; that it provides appropriate training and development experience; and that appropriate mentoring and support is provided to the Intern.
First, the Standard Agreement signed and agreed to by both the intern and the host organisation upon commencement clearly states the terms of the internship; including the expected working hours, which can range from 30 – 40 hours (maximum) per week and the specific learning outcomes the intern will gain over the course of their internship. Second, to ensure that both the host organisation and intern are abiding by the spirit and the rules of the scheme, the Department of Social Protection is involved in the ongoing monitoring of internships. This involves the regular review of monthly compliance reports and the conducting of random monitoring site visits to facilitate discussions with both parties to the Internship. Of the 1,235 monitoring visits conducted to date, encouragingly 97% of visits were of a satisfactory nature with remedial action taken in the remaining 3% of cases. Third, each host organisation’s allocation of Interns is based on it’s total number of employees. More details on this and the other stringent Host Organisation criteria are available on www.JobBridge.ie. Finally, under the current guidelines upon the conclusion of an internship position a cooling off period of 6 months must elapse before a host organisation can re-advertise either this position or another placement in the same area of activity.
Any individual, who suspects that an internship may be in breach of the scheme’s criteria, including cases of suspected displacement, quality issues or lack of appropriate mentoring and support, may contact the JobBridge team. All such matters are fully investigated. Recent independent research undertaken as part of an external evaluation of JobBridge by Indecon Independent Economic Consultants indicates that displacement of existing paid jobs occurs in only a very small number of cases and accounted for just 3% of the overall number of placements. Some 40 cases of suspected displacement have been investigated by the Department since July 2011. Following investigation, it was found that these allegations were substantiated in 4 cases and those organisations were disqualified from participating in JobBridge. Of the 2 cases of alleged displacement investigated in Co. Kerry neither could be substantiated.
If the individual to whom the Deputy refers is aware of a specific instance of displacement, I would invite her to contact the JobBridge team directly via the ‘Contact Us’ section of the JobBridge website (www.jobbridge.ie) to provide specific details and enable an investigation to be made.
