Are unpaid internships legal?

Good summary here: https://gradireland.com/careers-advice/internships/law-unpaid-internships-know-your-rights

Basic summary is that if they're doing actual work, it should be paid. Defining "actual work" and the difference between it and "just learning" is the tricky part.

Of course, the legal position is mostly moot. If the family member attempts to challenge it, they're not going to get the position. If they take the position and try to get paid after the fact, even if they're successful, they're not going to be kept on after the internship.

the idea is that interns are supposed to be getting a bit of an insider look at the broad area of employment they hope to subsequently make a living. They should not be replacing regular paid workers but be learners accommodated in return for taking on a small project or two that is useful to the employer.

I have always been suspicious of exploitation happening, and clearly if as you say is the case with IT companies, that’s pretty woeful. So, they get their entry-level & more routine job tasks done free, and at the other end employ people with years of experience and/postgrad/further training. I imagine AI is only going to expand this middle hollow.

Avoid any company that offers unpaid internships. From my experience it always provided an insight into their mindset and attitude to everything else.

Some UK owned companies have got the wobbles about offering them due to the UK's Modern Slavery laws; many still do but the generally quite odious UK owned firm I worked for stopped them entirely; and eventually got involved with colleges paid placement schemes to get back the flow of possible hires

Their ones weren't even the outright worst, 50 quid a week for lunches (you could still get a big lunch for a tenner then) and 50 quid a week for transport is better than being expected to ask your parents for pocket money for those on top of everything else; and they did hire nearly everyone but I still couldn't recommend it.

It's the same with most STEM subjects - the only reason to go into STEM right now should be to use it as a springboard into FinTech, investment banking or the like. Doing STEM to land a lab role is putting yourself into servitude.

A paid one is very common, but you are expected to do work and watch and learn but not disrupt the flow too much.

An unpaid internship usually has a very hands on approach and one to one mentoring and learning though experience. In many cases its costs the company money due to the need for a staff member to be training the person, but they hope to get a return by finding out if the internee is a suitable match for the company in a paid role.

If you think you will get a lot of learning and benefit - go for the unpaid role. If you think you are going to be a gofor - decline it

Who said the kid is sitting at home? The point is that some children can afford to be bankrolled by their families while they spend six months not getting paid. Children from less well-off families cannot afford to do that - they have to take a paid job. And when the unpaid internship is at a prestigious firm (as they often are, since those positions are the most sought after), lower economic classes are locked out

There's something in the back of my mind about a case here where a judge found that it is illegal to have a worker paid less than minimum wage. I can't find the reference right now but am pretty sure it happened.

This is true.

However many industries in Ireland have established a culture of free work experience or internship as a rite of passage. It's basically free labour. As you say it spells volumes about a companies culture.

No shortage of work if you'll work for free. You might have to do it to get a step in the door. But the real talent is getting paid for your labour.