‘High-class roles should not be above JobBridge’

A Government TD has questioned why JobBridge should not be extended to “high-class” professions during a fractious debate over whether the scheme was taking advantage of vulnerable job seekers.

Labour TD Joanna Tuffy said she did not understand “why some things are above” the scheme during a meeting yesterday of the Oireachtas Education and Social Protection Committee, which heard the programme may be dropped next year.

Responding to concerns from Independent senator Gerard Craughwell and representatives of the National Youth Council of Ireland that a significant minority of people who accept JobBridge placements are being taken advantage of by companies, Ms Tuffy said nothing could be further from the truth.

The committee chair said when she qualified with an English and History BA degree in the 1990s she had to accept a placement to enter the workforce and that this should not be considered an unnecessary step.

Saying it was unreasonable for people to criticise the scheme for including advertised positions for highly- qualified roles, the Dublin Mid-West representative said it was wrong to say “you can’t advertise for a vet because that’s too high class”.

Questioned over the comment, she said “it could be for a doctor” and asked: “Why are some things above it, I don’t see why one is above it and another not?”

The claim, made during a two-hour debate involving committee members along with the Department of Social Protection and the National Youth Council of Ireland, was criticised by Mr Craughwell, who said: “I don’t believe JobBridge was designed to get that kind of work”.

The former Teachers Union of Ireland president said, in some cases, the scheme had been grossly abused.

“If I’m a trained teacher I’m a teacher, that’s it”, and warned that if Government believes it was fair to ask highly-qualified people to work for free in order to gain experience and enter the workforce then, he claimed: “We’re rushing to a race towards the bottom.”

However, despite the furore, Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne and Independent Senator Marie Louise O’Donnell both said the scheme was voluntary.

Ms O’Donnell had earlier clashed with Mr Craughwell, telling him: “You shouldn’t be making up generalisations. I’ve been here four years and you’ve been here about six months.” She said: “I’ve seen a lot of people going out of ‘big universities’ capable of nothing”.

Ms Byrne was similarly clear in her JobBridge support, saying she was “sick of listening” to claims people are “marched in to enter” the scheme. “If anybody is exploiting JobBridge, it’s the people themselves. When you take a job you either like it or you don’t,” she said.

While confirming JobBridge was now under review and may be scrapped entirely early next year due to the uplift in the economy, Department of Social Protection officials Paul Carroll and Terry Corcoran repeated the view and stressed the scheme was voluntary.

However, National Youth Council of Ireland president Ian Power said: “I don’t think it’s fair to say there is no compulsion” to enter and stressed, despite the Government’s Indecon report highlighting benefits, his own group’s review has noted intern concerns.