Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2013
348. Deputy Simon Harris asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will clarify the terms of the JobBridge scheme as they apply to the education sector and specifically if and when educational institutions can recommence advertising for future placements starting in September 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22495/13]
View answer362. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she is satisfied that displacement of persons in paid employment in certain companies is not taking place because of the companies taking on interns from the JobBridge scheme, in view of concerns highlighting that positions advertised on the JobBridge website are identical to paid employment positions previously advertised by certain companies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22799/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 348 and 362 together.
In line with previous years, the deadline for applications for 9 month internships in the education sector will be 13th September, 2013 and for 6 month internships the deadline will be 6th December 2013. Education sector host organisations may submit applications from 1st August to 6 December 2013 for placements for the academic year 2013/14. These closing dates have been chosen to ensure that interns can complete their internship prior to the summer holiday period, that is no later than 27th June, 2014. These dates will be clearly advertised on the home page of the JobBridge website later this month thereby giving several months advance notice to potential host organisations in the education sector.
With regard to the issue of displacement, the recent independent evaluation of JobBridge launched by myself and the Taoiseach on 1st May found that any such scheme inevitably has some element of displacement but that, based on reported instances, displacement of existing paid jobs by JobBridge internships occurs in only a very small number of cases and accounted for just 3% of the overall number of placements within the organisations responding to the survey. I am satisfied that the Department’s monitoring and control measures are addressing displacement where it is occurring. More than 2,000 monitoring visits have taken place to-date and I am pleased to say that 97% of those visits found the internships to be operating satisfactorily. Remedial action has been taken in cases of non-compliance.
If any individual suspects any potential abuses of the Scheme including displacement there is a dedicated support facility on the Contact Us page of the JobBridge website. All such matters will be fully investigated.
