Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 November 2025
200. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of inspections carried out of English language schools by immigration officials in 2025 to date, and in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64309/25]
View answer201. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the details of all reviews and assessments that have been carried out by his Department into the quality and standard of courses provided by English language schools in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64310/25]
View answer202. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of inspections carried out by immigration inspectors of compliance with minimum standards of English for students applying for Irish immigration residence permissions in 2025 to date, and in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64311/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 200, 201 and 202 together.
In order for a non-EEA national student to register for a stamp 2 permission they must enrol and commence a course of study from the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP).
Education providers were required to have met certain standards and requirements to have their programmes included on the ILEP and be accredited by recognised Irish awarding bodies. Providers must remain in compliance with the relevant criteria to retain a listing on the ILEP. Instances of non-compliance may result in removal from the ILEP.
My Department monitors activities and conducts inspections to determine ongoing compliance with immigration requirements and ILEP criteria. Any education provider may be subject to unannounced inspections, on-line monitoring, or random spot checks to ensure its compliance with ILEP criteria, and this includes the maintenance of records and reports. These may be requested by my Department at any time and failure to do so can result in the removal of a provider from the ILEP.
The table below shows the number of inspections carried out by my Department from 2020, up to 31 October 2025.
|
Year |
Compliance inspections |
|
2020 |
7 |
|
2021 |
0* |
|
2022 |
2 |
|
2023 |
3 |
|
2024 |
2** |
|
2025 (up to 31 October) |
4 |
* It was necessary to halt inspections during the pandemic due to the public health restrictions. However, monitoring activities still continued, involving routine or specific requests for records and information relating to compliance with requirements and sector-wide surveys.
**Up to and including 2024, the Garda National Immigration Bureau carried out further inspections for counties within their remit before the transfer of registration functions to my Department was complete.
Inspections are only one piece of a suite of compliance activities. Once a provider is listed on the ILEP, they are required to notify ISD of matters such as, but not limited to, any changes to the ownership of the school, change in locations or additional centres, changes to their academic management or teachers, and student capacity numbers.
ILEP is being superseded by TrustEd Ireland, the international education mark launched in September 2024 by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. TrustEd Ireland is a new statutory quality mark and part of a suite of legislative measures designed to further protect international learners.
Once the ILEP is discontinued, only education providers granted authorisation to use the TrustEd Ireland mark will be eligible to recruit students from outside the EEA to English language programmes, foundation programmes and higher education programmes leading to awards within the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).
The new mark will be awarded to higher education and English language education providers who have demonstrated that they meet national standards to ensure a quality experience for international learners from pre-enrolment through to the completion of their programme of education and training. Applications are currently being reviewed for the first application cycle, which closed in March 2025. Decisions are scheduled to issue in January 2026.
