Response to Job Bridge 'significant'

There has been a significant response from industry to the Government’s Job Bridge internship programme, but less enthusiasm from employers to take up more generous supports for hiring disabled people.

That is according to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton who this morning told a seminar on social inclusion it was Government policy to “switch the focus from a person’s disability to a person’s ability”.

Addresssing the Ecomonic and Social Research Institute's seminar Promoting social inclusion for people with disabilities: national and European perspectives, Ms Burton said 4,500 applications from employers had been received in relation to the internship programme, and already 2,500 had been approved.

While she did not provide figures for disability supports for employers, Ms Burton said she failed to understand why the “far greater” supports for employers had "not resulted in a far stronger take up".

She told the audience which was made up of representatives of a number of groups who work with people with disabilities, she had been asked why there was not a greater focus on these people in the Job Bridge programme. But she said “support available through other schemes is far greater than anything that Job Bridge offers”.

Established 11 weeks ago, the Government scheme offers internships in the private, public and voluntary sector to those in receipt of social welfare for at least three months. Successful applicants are offered work experience for six or nine months, along with an extra €50 per week in addition to their social welfare payments.

The intention is that the two-year scheme will help people avoid a 'Catch 22' situation where workers cannot get employment because they have no experience and cannot get experience because there is no work.

Ms Burton also said that while the IMF had “strongly demanded” there should be a reform of income support provided through social welfare, this provided the opportunity for a “remaking of the welfare state in Ireland” and place it on a “long term sustainable basis”.