Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Social Protection

 

Reply

 

As at 19^th September 2014, 200 individuals were on JobBridge internships and a further 772 individuals had finished internships in County Wexford.  As of the same date, there were 331 participants and 17 supervisors participating in TÚS in County Wexford.

 

As of the same date, 102 individuals had started third JobBridge internships, of whom 10 were under 25.

 

As at 18^th September 2014, 33,068 individuals had commenced JobBridge internships since the scheme began on 1^st May, 2011, of whom, 9,215 were under 25 when commencing their internship.  Of those 9,215, 1,546 individuals are currently on internships.

 

The 6 month cooling off period applies automatically to all host organisations except where the reason given for the internship finishing is employment, either with the host organisation or another organisation.  However, a host organisation that has a quota of more than one internship may, in the normal course, advertise to fill the rest of that quota at any time.  If the Deputy is aware of specific instances of abuse of JobBridge, he should pass the details to the Department, which investigates all reports of abuse.

 

Jobseekers aged between 18 and 65 who are in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance, Jobseekers Benefit, Disability Benefit, One Parent Family Payment or Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment or signing for credits for 3 out of the last 6 months may apply for JobBridge.  I have no plans to change the eligibility criteria for the JobBridge scheme at present.