Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 April 2015
405. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the role of Marketing English in Ireland in determining the accreditation of English language schools; the guidelines used to determine whether accreditation is awarded to schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14882/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department does not accredit English language schools. Its role, and mine as Minister, in this area is to put in place an appropriate immigration regime to deal with applications from non-EEA students seeking permission to come to Ireland for the purpose of attending English language programmes. That includes ensuring that students are fulfilling the conditions of their permission, that the college is operating in a manner that can justify the granting of immigration permission to such students and that the immigration regime is consistent with public policy generally. For longer courses (where the student stays longer than 90 days) that requires the maintenance of a list of programmes for which immigration permission may be given provided that the student meets the immigration requirements. This has previously been what is referred to as the Internationalisation Register (it also lists academic programmes). The rules in respect of eligibility for that Internationalisation Register are accessible on the following site http://www.intregister.ie/regs.html.
My Department is the final arbiter of what is listed on the Internationalisation Register and this will continue under the its proposed replacement, known as the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP), which was announced last September and implementation of which has been temporarily delayed following a High Court judgement in January. It had been intended to make ACELS recognition (ACELS represents a voluntary quality assurance process operated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland) a prerequisite for English language providers seeking to have their programmes listed on the ILEP. However the Court ruled against this and work is at an advanced stage in providing an alternative process for assessing whether language providers/programmes should be permitted to appear on the ILEP.
It should also be noted that a large majority of the students who come to Ireland to learn English are EU nationals requiring no immigration permission and my Department has no interaction with them.
Marketing English in Ireland has no determinative role whatsoever in the process I have described above.
