Department ‘ignoring’ JobBridge calls

The Department of Social Protection has been accused of ignoring JobBridge interns’ genuine concerns after rejecting calls to double the money they receive, claiming the State cannot afford the increase.

In a statement responding directly to Irish Examiner questions based on changes recommended by the National Youth Council of Ireland, and which the department failed to answer on Tuesday, Tánaiste Joan Burton’s department confirmed it does not accept the key changes outlined.

The 120-page NYCI report had specifically called for the weekly welfare payment received by interns to be increased from €50 to €100, and for plans to force 1,500 long-term unemployed people onto the related First Steps scheme to be scrapped.

The advocacy group also called for stronger measures such as fines to be imposed against firms — including 43 companies banned indefinitely from the scheme — over their treatment of interns, and for greater scrutiny of whether companies are finding loopholes to exploit the supposed six-month “cooling off” period to ensure they do not replace one intern with another.

A department spokeswoman said the pay increase is “not possible”, that to do so would see JobBridge interns earn more than the minimum wage.

The NYCI hit out at the comments, saying they ignore interns’ genuine concerns.

A spokesperson said Ms Burton indicated last May she “would certainly like to address” increasing weekly welfare payments to interns, that 58.5% of JobBridge participants are on just €100-144 a week and not the €188 a week the department’s figures are based on, and that it is already possible for people to get more than the minimum wage in “other welfare schemes”.