2026-01-27

143. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of English language schools that were subject to inspection by immigration officials in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6116/26]

The programme for Government contains a commitment to publish a national migration and integration strategy detailing how the Government intends to meet the demands and opportunities facing Irish society in the coming years. The Department is currently working with other Departments to develop this strategy. As part of this strategic approach, I am reviewing the area of student permissions, including with regard to English language students. All education providers are subject to unannounced inspections, online monitoring or random spot-checks to ensure their compliance with the interim list of eligible programmes, ILEP. This includes the maintenance of records and reports. All education providers listed on the ILEP must have clear systems in place for the recording of attendance and must clearly outline the rules on punctuality and the related penalties. Such records may be requested by the immigration service at any time and failure to provide them can result in the removal of a provider from the ILEP system. The number of English language schools that potentially could have been subject to physical inspections in 2025 was 86. The number of in-person inspections carried out by my Department in 2025 was four. In 2024, there were two inspections; in 2023, there were three inspections; in 2022, there were two inspections; in 2021, which was a Covid-19 year, there were no inspections; and in 2020, there were seven inspections. 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. Furthermore, up to and including 2024, the Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, carried out further inspections for counties within their remit before the transfer of registration functions to my Department

The Minister of State's colleague, the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy James Lawless, told a media outlet at the end of last month that some English language schools were acting as tick-box exercises to allow people to get work permits. Is that an assertion the Minister of State agrees with? On what basis has that assertion been made? If other Ministers have been making similar assertions and that were the view of the Government, it would be incomprehensible that the Minister of State would stand over there being four inspections in a year. It is clear, based on the level of inspection of language schools, that it is nowhere near the number people would expect if the issue were as serious, or the Government were taking the issue as seriously, as suggested. Have any education providers, as a result of inspections, been removed from the ILEP for failing to comply with immigration requirements?

In relation to students coming to the country to study, whether in the university sector or English language sector, it is my view and that of the Government that we want to have a high-quality, professional system for education. We want to see the best academic institutions providing a top-quality service, whether in English language or other areas of education. The purpose of coming to Ireland to engage in study should be that. It should not be for work or any other purpose. The majority of students who come here want to do that. There is an attraction - and it needs to be examined - in the availability of employment, which is 20 hours during term time and 40 hours outside term time, and we will keep it under constant review. However, the focus has to be that they are here to study. That has to be the primary driver of the visa being granted. On the Deputy's specific question about whether schools were removed from the ILEP system, my understanding is that the majority of schools, when a problem is brought to their attention, rectify it. Therefore, it is not necessary to remove the course from the ILEP system.

On one hand, the Government says English language schools are a tick-box exercise to allow people to get work permits. The Minister of State has indicated this evening that a number of people are securing stamp 2 visas, which are in effect precarious work visas. I think the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has confirmed that. However, levels of inspections are minimal and no school has been closed as a result of those assertions. The ESRI Asylum and Migration Overview 2024 that I mentioned was published just in December. It highlighted the example of Brazilian migration to Ireland in a study that illustrated the precarity and exploitation of Brazilians working in Ireland on stamp 2 visas. The author of that study argued that the stamp 2 visa, though a study visa in name, acted as a precarious work visa as well. When will the Government stop talking about this and what will it do about it?

The situation, as I outlined already, is straightforward. People come here to study. They want to study. In facilitating them studying, we also have to look at whether there should be, as there currently is, an option for them to avail of work. It enables them to participate in their studies. How that is managed is important. I would not be in favour of a process where people were effectively working on the side. It has to be the opposite. I want to see structures in place that ensure that, when students come to this country, their primary purpose in coming is to engage in academic activity or study, be that in the area of English language or one of the various areas of further education. As to whether that should be facilitated by the ability they have at the moment to work for 20 hours per week, I do not think that is precarious working. It is facilitating students to engage in their studies. However, it is equally important that the institutions know and are clearly aware of the fact - the Department conveys this to them all the time - that they must enforce the rules around their students attending their courses and engaging in their studies. That is at the heart of what they are supposed to be doing as academic institutions.