MINISTER FOR Social Protection Joan Burton insisted the Government’s internship scheme was providing valuable work experience .

“Feedback is positive but that does not mean there are no problems and that we do not need constant vigilance,” she said.

Sinn Féin social protection spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh claimed the design of the scheme was leading to “outrageous exploitation”. He had browsed the website and found “11 objectionable new advertisements”.

There were internships that clearly displaced what should be real jobs.

“The posts are dressed up in fancy language to give the impression they are meaningful internships but cursory research dispels that myth.”

Mr Ó Snodaigh said that a retail assistant post based in Waterford city claimed the intern “will also be trained in the use of highly specialised Microsoft RMS software, used for point of sale”.

However, he added, according to the Microsoft website, the RMS software package enabled employees “to learn POS procedures in minutes” and not 30 hours weekly over nine months.

Mr Ó Snodaigh said the Minister had failed to prevent displacement and exploitation that was the inevitable outworking of the scheme. Some employers were using it to avoid hiring people on proper terms and conditions to undertake standard functions.

Ms Burton said that more than 4,000 employers had offered internships and only 2,500 had been accepted. The scheme, known as JobBridge, was an internship and work experience programme, not a job, she said.

In some cases, she added, more must be done because specifications did not meet requirements.

In the hotel and catering industry, Fáilte Ireland had done detailed and valuable work for the hospitality sector to identify good internships.

Ms Burton said that somebody who left school without many qualifications might be interested in a different kind of job and experience to someone who was a postgraduate archaeologist.

“The department and I made the decision to make JobBridge open to different levels and not to make it an internship open only to graduates and postgraduates,” the Minister added.

More than 1,100 people had started internships and 625 had been transferred from the work placement programme.

Mr Ó Snodaigh said the practice seemed to be that the scheme was used as cheap or free labour.

“Does the Minister agree that the scheme is a giant disincentive to job creation?” he asked.

“Why would an employer create a real job when he or she can exploit free labour courtesy of this Government?”

Ms Burton said there were monitoring processes including a steering committee. The advice of stakeholders, including employer organisations and trade unions, was taken into account.