Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Tertiary education has a very important role to play, not only in lifelong learning but for people who want to change careers and directions of where they want to go. Following last week’s engagement, I spoke to one of the contributors. They told me about the scams that people have been caught up in. There is no other way of describing these other than absolute scams. People have paid out thousands of euro, which has just disappeared into the ether with one of these scammers. I am in no way saying that legitimate agencies are not doing the good work that they do but there is an element that is exploiting people. With that in mind, does QQI or the Department have any oversight of these agencies that are highlighting opportunities to come to Ireland to learn English or even the potential use of, say, an escrow account where the students’ money would be secure?