Monitoring of the JobBridge scheme had revealed the vast majority of internships were found to be satisfactory, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Alex White told the Dáil.
He said there had been almost 10,000 visits since the scheme got under way, resulting in 97.5 per cent operating satisfactorily. Only 44 out of 11,000 host organisations had been banned indefinitely, while 10 had been banned for a lesser period of time, he added.
“That represents 0.5 per cent against a backdrop of thousands of monitoring visits,” Mr White added.
Severe action
He said complaints were investigated and, where a breach was found, severe action was taken.
The Minister was replying to Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who said the scheme was lowering pay and creating under-employment in the State.
He said the Indecon report found 30 per cent of employers saying they would create a job if JobBridge did not exist.
"We have also seen headlines about the abuse of the scheme and the fact that the Department of Social Protection has allowed internships to be promoted which otherwise would have been entry-level jobs,'' Mr Ó Snodaigh added.
He said six out of the first 10 positions advertised on the JobBridge website were for retail or office staff.
"It does not take six to nine months to learn how to stack shelves, nor does it take nine months to learn how to pick potatoes in Donegal, '' he said.
