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THERE ARE CURRENTLY 24 people availing of JobBridge internships at government departments.
The junior minister at the Department of Social Protection Kevin Humphreys yesterday told the Dáil that the staff get “good quality work experience”.
Responding to a question from Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, Humphreys said that the government had employed 330 people on the scheme since 2011.
He added that his own department, who oversees the scheme, has had eight interns in the last three years and that some had “moved on to prestigious employment”.
There are currently 11 interns in the Department of Communications and four in Justice and Equality.
Under JobBridge, social welfare recipients receive an extra €50 per week.
Higgins called the use of people on JobBridge “cynical”, saying that it was “yellow pack cheap labour”.
Humphreys said he was “disappointed” in Higgins’s criticism of the scheme, adding that he has talked to many young men and women in recent months who have taken up internships.
“They have told me, overwhelmingly, that they have got the experience to go back into employment. That is what JobBridge is doing; it is not about roars, screams and catchphrases. It is about providing experience to young people to allow them to get back into employment. That is something I support.”
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They gave us Abba and now they do this. Love the Swedish people.
Ireland has been upgraded to a ABBA rating.
It’s all Money Money Money
Bravo diarmuid
Good news is always welcome to most reasonable people.
Well done Noonan, probably one of the best finance ministers this country has ever had. Well done Sweden also for being so generous.
Finance minister. Failed minister of health. Led the party to an absolute hiding in 2001 but still is in politics. Yep, only in Ireland
Spot on..
Hey hurler – are you a Freemason like Michael Noonan was said to be on the R.T.E. ….
Always been quite the fan of the swedish….
Michael Noonan is one of the few ministers I have even an ounce of respect for. Judging him on health would be unfair. Nobody can do anything about health until union power is reduced.
Their women in particular ;)
What about his age – he is part off a Government that extended the compulsory retirement age to 68 – he should have by his own rules retired three years ago – Is he drawing his pensions and his salary together for the last 3 years – is he drawing his pensions since the retirement age of 65 ?
If we are only paying 2% in borrowing and growth is at 3% then surely Irish Water should be borrowing for infrastructure on balance sheet – there is no cheaper money >>>>
Oh Michael you are a victim of your own spin !
He can’t draw his political pensions until he retires.
It was 2002 that they got the hiding but Michael Collins, had he been
alive and leader of Fine Gael would have taken the exact same hiding. Life was brilliant back then, everyone driving beemers and having a minimum of 2 houses. Fianna Fáil could do. I wrong, Charlie Mac giving us all free money if we wanted it. The good auld days alright!
Check out his record re: Mrs. Mc Cole as she was dying. Scurrilous.
Dermot can’t comprehend good news
..Whilst good news alright, what does it tell us about how badly struck the deal was in the first place ?. The fact that early repayment could even possibly need a vote from anyone is ridiculous.
We should never have even being saddled with this debt deal but seen as we have being able to offload a chunk of debt is good
I can comprehend a con when I see one – total failure to deal with the Trichet letter and a rush to pay of the I.M.F so that certain hidden bank accounts won’t come to light …do you think the whole country is stupid !
Noonan best finance minister we’ve had ???? Are you having a laughing.
Do you remember the children’s shoe tax in the 80s by Noonan ?. Have you forgotten his midnight legislation in the Dial with all night drinking in the Dail bar and the lapdance event!. where he permanently transferred the private bank debts onto the taxpayers back forever?.
This Noonan ?
The VAT on children’s shoes debacle was John Bruton Giuseppe, not Noonan!
That chaps neck must be killing him.
I stand corrected thx reg.
Sweden, Britain and Denmark are the true friends of Ireland in Europe. The 3 loaned Ireland some money during the bank bailout at lower interest. The ECB screwed Ireland.
I’ve been playing clash of clans on the ipad and iphone for over a year now and i think we should wipe out all this debt by invading europe. The invasion would be based around strategically sending in giants and wallbreakers first followed by wizards, the odd dragon and a heap of goblins. I’m happy to lead this invasion.
I could easily pass as a dwarf …lead away !
If I could like this twice…
Once victory is achieved I will distribute the Elixir and Gold of Europe evenly among the people of Ireland and also grant free ski passes to all while im at it. I will keep the dark elixir for myself but not that yee would notice as you tackle the blue and red runs of the alpes, pyrenees and the Black forest Gateaux.
I refuse to attack nuns ..It’s against my religion ….although if you could delay the invasion for a week I hear Isis are moving to Tipperary so I might join them ….. then no one within a water balloon throw will be safe !
That’s ski runs Dermot not nuns :-)
humph …… I only wanted to go and see a few nuns …. decisions decisions …
Ok chewy I said I’d go but I will go as non ISIs Dwarf ….if that’s o.k.
Might I suggest we go in through Spain – the French have a nasty habit of watching their ports ….. and their wine ….
They are better to the irish than the Irish banks are to the Irish people who bailed them out without a choice
Why oh why oh why oh why did we not burn the bondholders?
Our debt – which was almost at junk status and is now highly rated again – has been sold at spectacular profit to speculators
Nama are selling chunks of the country off in big, unbroken lots
Anglo should have been let slide
Why oh why were meters installed without first modestly charging consumers a flat rate for water and using the income to fix the massive leaking 100 year old pipes? Instead we got lumped with the cost of installing millions of meters attached to millions of modern homes with modern, efficient plumbing when the more serious problem was distribution wastage.
Chill – the New Government will be subjecting the title of all Irish property passed through NAMA under the most rigourous tests imaginable – often those who win mistake the half-time whistle for the full-time one , take their eye of the ball and then the whole game unravels from them !
It wouldn’t be highly rated if we’d burned them, that’s for sure.
and we wouldn’t be in as much debt either.
I find it very wrong, that while we are in a “union” with these other countries, they expect to make money off of less well off countries by charging interest.
It’s like a friend giving you €100, and expecting interest.
We are all supposed to be a one market economy in Europe, yet it’s the strongest of the economies who call the shots..
Money loses value over time. Your friend doesn’t charge interest on €100, because the value that loses is insignificant. If they lent you €1,000,000,000, you can be sure they’d want to be compensated for the value it lost while you had it
Not exactly. There is a cost to those countries in lending us that money and they cannot be expected to bear that cost. e.g If a friend lent you €50,000 over 5 years, foregoing interest while at the same time paying a mortgage at 4.3% he would be quite entitled to look for interest.
Actually neuromancer has a good point. Though the friend loaning money analogy isn’t entirely appropriate. The main problem with the crash of the euro is that all eurozone countries, while using the same currency, are competing with each other for share of that currency. Take the fact that the ECB is currently trying to fight deflation so as to maintain their inflation target of 2% per annum, they have slashed interest rates as low as they can go in order to try and manage this and it isn’t working too well. Another technique they could use would be to print more money but they can’t exactly do that for the benefit of every eurozone country as these countries are all competing for the same currency, Germany or France etc would still get more than Greece, for example.
As I said, the analogy of a friend loaning money isn’t appropriate. A better analogy would be in the hypothetical situation of Ireland still using the pound but Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick all setting their own individual budgets instead of a national budget for the country being produced by a centralised authority.
So friendship only if it doesn’t cost you Neil?
The Swedes, a great bunch of lads!
ha, the slaves got a deal to lengthen the chain.
Save 400 million a year then put that in to irish water
When a country runs a budget deficit like we do, it’s not an actual tangible saving….
you also missed the word ‘could’
And well probably only give them 1 point in the Eurovision
Oh yeah great news,
The Irish people get to pay back a part of the ILLEGAL debt Europe gave us early.
Hooray.
tick tock , now interest rates only have to stay at 2% for the next 30 years oh and no significant recessions during this time, oh and no default or economic problems in Greece , Italy , Spain etc………….
tick tock €180bn in debt , and around 2 million workers to support it, as the country lad you ask direction would say ” I wouldn’t start from here”
I think this is great news and the government are right to milk it for all the positive spin they can muster…….even though in reality its a bit like someone trying to give hope to the passengers on the Titanic as he bails with a bucket.
And whats going to happen to this €400 million that we are saving?
Oh yes, that’s right – it will go some small way to pay the €8 Billion in interest we owe Europe every year because let’s face it, it won’t be invested in Ireland will it?
Cue the red thumbs from the FG/lab brigade that are all over this article with their blinkered heads up their own rectums.
apart from the fact we won’t be saving 400million. it will just be 400 million less to raise to pay back the loans
It’s results like these that will see this government reelected in 2016. They’ve made the tough decisions and this country will reap the rewards.
Even when they fcuk things up, they’ve had the courage to reverse and amend…
FG/Labour get re-elected? lol!
I don’t know what you are on but I’d like some…
Anything to get us into NATO …not happening I.M.F. not happening …
Come on now Michael Noonan keep your word you said that you wouldn’t do a Fianna Fail and engage in Auction Politics …oh sorry Mike – didn’t you go and get an ould water rebate – if that isn’t auction politics I am a Japanese man !
good on them I guess? It’s almost the next best thing to not paying this shit at all…
Anyone know when it’s all going to be paid back? Will the USC be abolished then? I can’t see it being abolished so I’d like to know when I should start recruiting protestors to get it removed.
Nice to see Noonan ‘dare to zlatan’!!
Good news is always welcome
How much interest are we paying each year for the bailout?
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