Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe  has welcomed the comments made by newly appointed Minister of State for Training and Skills John Halligan who pledged  that he would do everything in his power to get rid of the JobBridge Scheme.

The JobBridge scheme was introduced in 2011, and offered interns 6 month or 9 month placements while allowing them to retain their social welfare entitlements.

Deputy Seán Crowe  said:

“I welcome the comments made by Minister of State Halligan that JobBridge is a failure, has been abused and that he will do everything he cn do  to get rid of it.

“While technically JobBridge falls under the remit of Minister for Social Protection, Leo Varadkar, it is encouraging to know that Deputy Halligan will be applying pressure on him to scrap this scheme which has been so open to exploitation and reduced the availability of real job opportunities.

“JobBridge interns have even  been taken on by  Government Departments, in the past but sadly not one of them has been kept on after completing their intern placements.

“At the launch of the JobBridge programme the then Minister for Social Protection expressed hope that some employers would find talented and motivated interns and make the decision to offer employment to their intern. In other words, the period of internship would be a job interview for a longer period that would lead to employment.

“The big concern expressed at the time was that employers would take on interns, get them to do the same job as other employees, use and exploit them for the statutory period and then let them go. That is exactly what has been happening ever since.

“Government departments have hired interns using the scheme, established in 2011, but none of them have offered the interns any long-term employment.

“The public sector recruitment moratorium restricting the capacity of government departments to recruit new staff was the fig leaf now being used to cover their abuse of the scheme

“Since its introduction  Sinn Féin has been calling for the bogus jobs scheme to be abolished. Last year we published a document outlining exactly how the ‘one-size-fits-all’ JobBridge scheme could be replaced by tailored internships which would allow for meaningful learning opportunities.

“The new government now have a real opportunity to look again at  these labour activation schemes.  To actively support those seeking employment, training and  looking for real and living wage jobs..

” It is heartening that John Halligan in his capacity as Minister for State will be supporting the scrapping of the scheme. We believe that in decent pay for decent work – JobBridge as scheme has led to a greater exploitation and abuse by unscruplous employers and needs to scrapped”