Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 December 2013
173. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills in view of the fact that the Libyan Government is reported to be sending more than 20,000 students abroad to study, the contacts there have been between the Irish Government and the Libyan Government to facilitate Libyan students coming to Ireland to study English and go on to third level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54172/13]
View answer174. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills if restrictive application conditions for Libyan Government sponsored students in Ireland which gives competitive advantage to the authorities in the UK, US and Canada who do not have such a requirement, whereby they can thereby attract a large number of Libyan sponsored students to their shores will be amended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54173/13]
View answer232. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills in view of the fact that the Libyan Government is reported to be sending over 20,000 students abroad to study both English and also third level studies, the steps he has taken to facilitate Libyan students coming here to study; if he has met with the Department of Justice and Equality to discuss the granting of the same procedures to sponsored students from Libya as are afforded to sponsored students from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. [54167/13]
View answer233. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills the steps being taken to ensure that Libyan students are being issued with conditional letters of acceptance from higher education institutes, HEIs, in an appropriate and timely manner, as many applicants are complaining that conditional letter are taking very lengthy periods to be issued by HEIs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54168/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 173, 174, 232 and 233 together.
The Government is strongly committed to promoting Ireland as a centre for international education and to developing relationships with partner countries. We currently attract very few Libyan students to Ireland, and we are interested in growing that number in order to support the human capacity needs of Libyan society.
As the Deputy points out, Ireland has developed very successful partnerships with a number of countries in the region to educate Government-funded scholarship students. We are very open to developing a similar relationship with the Libyan Government, and contact has been made through diplomatic channels.
My Department works very closely with the Department of Justice and Equality on all issues related to international student recruitment, including issues related to Libyan students.
I am not aware of any restrictive conditions which apply particularly to Libyan students. My Department has no role in issuing conditional letters of offer, which is a matter for the institutions concerned.
