Twelve companies have been disqualified from taking on interns under JobBridge for breaking the scheme’s terms and conditions.

The companies were banned from the initiative for breaching rules, such as not providing appropriate mentoring, not adhering to compliance requirements and filling an existing job vacancy with an internship post.



Detailed investigations took place by the Department of Social Protection before the companies, which were not named for data protection reasons, were disqualified.



A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Protection said these companies’ actions should not take away from the scheme’s benefits.



“It is important to highlight that the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the Scheme. In fact, over 7,300 host organisations have commenced interns and only 12 companies have been disqualified due to breaches of the Scheme,” she said.



“The Department has strong and robust monitoring controls in place and over 1,000 monitoring visits were conducted in 2012. Encouragingly, 97 per cent of these visits were of a satisfactory nature. Remedial action is taken in cases of non-compliance."



Among the total of 7,346 host companies which have taken part in JobBridge are 14 out of the 16 Government Departments. The only two Government Departments not to offer placements so far are the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.



Since the scheme went live in July 2011, over 12,000 internships have been provided for applicants who receive social welfare payments and an extra €50 a month.