Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
605. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the procedure following a complaint under the JobBridge scheme; the number of interns that have left JobBridge early; the number of official complaints that have been made regarding internships; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16561/13]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that JobBridge has made exceptional progress since it came into operation on 1 July, 2011. As at 11 April, 2013, 16,326 internships have commenced with 5,944 participants on an internship and 2,410 internship opportunities advertised on www.jobbridge.ie as of that date. The recent interim independent evaluation of the scheme conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants found that 61% of individuals who have participated in JobBridge have progressed into employment within five months of completing their internship placements. This high level of progression into employment exceeds that of similar schemes across Europe, suggesting that JobBridge is an appropriate labour market intervention. The Department has stringent measures in place to monitor internships and to investigate alleged abuse of the scheme. Each advertisement is vetted by the National Contact Centre for compliance with scheme criteria. The eligibility of interns is assessed before they are permitted to commence an internship. Host organisations are required to complete monthly monitoring returns. Host organisations are subject to random monitoring visits by officers of the Department. Of the more than 1,600 monitoring visits conducted to date, 97% of internships monitored were found to be operating satisfactorily with remedial action taken in the remaining 3% of cases. The procedures for registering a query or complaint are addressed in the Contact Us section of the JobBridge website www.jobbridge.ie.
In addition to regular monitoring, the Department has received 218 complaints that have warranted investigation since the scheme commenced. A total of 15 breaches of the scheme criteria were found to be of a sufficiently serious nature so as to warrant the exclusion of the host organisation from participation in the scheme. The following were some of the key breaches of the scheme: standard Agreement not completed; appropriate Mentoring/Development not being provided; not adhering to Compliance Requirements; and displacement issues. However, it is important to highlight that the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme. In fact, over 7,500 host organisations have commenced interns since the scheme began, of which a total of 15 companies have been disqualified due to breaches of the scheme. Our analysis indicates that 58% of all interns have left their internship early. While this may appear to be of immediate concern, it is reassuring to highlight that 66% of these interns completed their internship early to take up immediate employment with either their host organisation or another company.
