Government fails to hire any of its 228 JobBridge interns

Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has criticised the government over its failure to hire any of its 228 JobBridge interns.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“A total of 228 JobBridge interns have been taken on by 14 Government Departments, but not one of them has been kept on after completing their intern placements.

“At the launch of the JobBridge programme Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton 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.

“New figures now available show that while 14 of 16 government departments have hired interns using the scheme, established in 2011, none has offered the interns any long-term employment.

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

“Under the JobBridge scheme, internships are provided for six to nine months for people who have been on social welfare for at least three months. They receive their social welfare payment plus an extra €50 a week in exchange for their work.

“So far, the departments taking on the most interns are the Department of Justice and Equality (90), Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (29) and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (19).

“A recent evaluation found that 41.2 per cent of interns who undertook their internship in a public sector organisation progressed into paid employment.

“The exception is, if you are an intern and work for this government.

“A total of 9,965 companies have used the JobBridge scheme, with 26 of those being disqualified for breaking the programme’s terms and conditions.

“In my opinion the government has broken the spirit of this programme exploiting and using these interns knowing full well that there was no real chance or opportunity for a full time job at the end of their service.

“Shame on them.”