Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 April 2013
33. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the situation in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council owned Ballyogan Recycling Depot, aat which a number of persons have been taken on to the JobsBridge scheme which has resulted in other workers being displaced [18808/13]
View answerThe Department is in receipt of a complaint regarding the issue raised by the Deputy and is currently examining the matter. All allegations are taken extremely seriously; displacement of existing workers by JobBridge interns is not allowed under the terms and conditions of the JobBridge scheme, is a flagrant abuse of the scheme and is not a practice that can be condoned in any circumstances. Any host organisation which is found to be displacing paid staff in contravention of the scheme rules will be disbarred from further access to the scheme. In addition, all existing internships with that host organisation will cease with immediate effect. I understand that the facility referred to in the question is operated by a private firm operating under contract with the local authority. The complaint made is currently being investigated by the Department and I am advised that an investigating officer has been in contact with both the individual who raised the complaint and with the host organisation. I expect a report on the matter to be finalised shortly.
The whole purpose of Jobbridge is to encourage job creation and to incentivise employers to offer opportunities to unemployed people. It runs counter to the logic of the scheme that it should be used to displace existing employees onto the live register and I will not tolerate such behaviour. In fact the scheme has been designed and is operated with a number of controls designed to minimise the risk of such behaviour. Specifically:
- The host organisation may not provide an internship opportunity under the Scheme to an individual with whom they have an existing employment relationship
- The host organisation cannot advertise internships if they have paid employment vacancies in the area of activity in which the internship is offered.
- The total number of internships which may be availed of by a host organisation is limited to 1 in 10 of their workforce or, in the case of very large employers, an absolute limit of 200 staff.
- Organisations must abide by a six-month cooling-off period between internships; in other words an organisation cannot ‘roll-over’ internships on a continuous basis. This limits the ability of an internship to substitute for a permanent role.
- The host organisation must commit to provide coaching and mentoring to the interns and to complete monthly compliance returns to the Department of Social Protection
- All applications from host organisations to advertise internships are reviewed and assessed against these criteria by the Department’s National Contact Centre in Edenderry.
- The Department of Social Protection proactively monitors internships on an ongoing basis. This involves the regular review of monthly compliance reports and the conduct of random monitoring site inspections. Since Jobbridge was launched 1,712 monitoring visits have been conducted.
- All complaints received from interns or members of the public are investigated. In addition to the regular monitoring regime, 275 complaints have warranted investigation since the Scheme commenced.
- To date 15 host organisations found to have breached the scheme criteria have been excluded from further participation in the Scheme.
I am satisfied that the design of the scheme together with the intensive monitoring regime operated by the Department minimises the level of displacement and acts to protect the interests of host organisations, interns and the wider labour market.
