Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 355: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of persons from outside the EU who have been given entry visas to Ireland in order to pursue a full time course of studies here in each of the past five years [37630/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The table provides the information sought by the Deputy for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Comparable figures for earlier years are not available. It should be noted that the figures set out below relate to visa transactions, for non-EEA nationals, resulting in approval decisions and do not refer to unique individuals.

I should add that, of the figures above, some 30% of study visas issued during 2009 were for short-term courses or assignments, including English language courses, of less than ninety days duration. The remaining 70% approximately were for longer-term study. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, it is not possible to provide a breakdown for short term and long term study visas (similar to that provided for the year 2009) for the years 2007 and 2008.