Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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274. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding applications within the ACELS/QQI or IEM recognition system at the moment; the reason for excessive delays; when this will be resolved. [39265/14]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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275. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of English language schools which have closed who were registered with ACELS/QQI at their time of closing. [39266/14]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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276. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding MEI being viewed as a quality assurance organisation for language providers; if she acknowledges MEI would have a vested interest in assuring the number of language providers in the State be reduced. [39267/14]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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277. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the fact that many English language schools and education providers have a number of concerns regarding the new regulations; and her views on same. [39268/14]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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278. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will clarify the role of ACELS in quality assurance for bodies outside of the State for the purposes of facilitating the recognition in the State of awards of those bodies. [39269/14]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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279. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason organisations outside of the State were not recognised as awarding bodies for the purposes of awarding English language qualifications within the State. [39270/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 274 to 279, inclusive, together.

ACELS (Accreditation and Co-ordination of English Language Services) is a voluntary scheme operated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) which grants recognition to English Language Teaching Organisations (ELTOs) annually.

The length of time taken to process an application for ACELS-recognition is very much dependent on the preparedness and responsiveness of the applying ELTO, with delays arising where ELTOs fail to respond in a timely manner. ELTOs which apply for ACELS-recognition are assessed for their compliance with the relevant minimum requirements, in two distinct stages.

Stage 1 involves the submission of relevant documentation by the provider concerned and its assessment for compliance with ACELS standards. Where applications are complete and accurate this stage is completed in a maximum of 10 weeks. However, the provider may be asked for additional information and is given a period of 30 working days to respond. This can happen twice. Therefore, where a provider is asked for additional information on two occasions, and on both occasions takes the full 30 working days, the process can be lengthened considerably. Stage 2 involves a site visit and inspection report. The date of the inspection is agreed with the provider within 10 days of the completion of Stage 1 and, once completed, the provider has 10 working days to comment on the factual accuracy of the report.

QQI re-opened access to ACELS recognition for a temporary period from 17 October 2013 to 31 January 2014. The purpose of this period was to enable those English Language Training Organisations (ELTOs) which were ready to apply, and which had expressed a strong interest in gaining recognition for 2014, to do so through a revised and strengthened process. During that period, QQI/ACELS received a total of 35 applications for recognition. As of 25 September, 5 of those applications had been successful,1 application had been refused and 10 applications ceased due to closure, suspension or a change of circumstances post-application. On that date, the remaining 19 applications were still in process, with 14 of those applications being close to completion.

With regard to the closure of ELTOs, the Department is not aware of any ELTOs which have closed while holding ACELS-recognition.

With regard to Marketing English in Ireland (MEI), the Department does not view MEI as a quality assurance organisation for language providers. Rather MEI is a private membership organisation of ELTOs which hold ACELS-recognition and which extend protection for enrolled learners (PEL) arrangements to each other. The regulatory reform of the international education sector, announced on 2 September, was entirely a matter for the Departments of Education and Skills and Justice and Equality.

I am aware that certain providers operating in this sector have concerns regarding the scope of those reforms. However, the Minister for Justice and Equality and I have both indicated that the reforms are urgently required to protect the consumer and educational interests of genuine international students, to tackle abuse of the labour market and the immigration regime, and to safeguard the strong international reputation of high-quality Irish education providers. While this may cause some short-term disruption to certain providers, it is in the long-term interest of the sector as a whole.

It is important to be clear that these reforms pertain solely to the immigration status of non-EEA nationals. No change has been made which will restrict the ability of institutions to educate Irish citizens or to attract international students from within the European market of over half a billion people.

With regard to the role of ACELS in facilitating the recognition of awards of bodies from outside the State, ACELS does not have such a role.

Finally, the regulatory reform of the international education, which I recently announced with the Minister for Justice and Equality, requires that the programmes concerned lead to awards made by Irish awarding bodies, such as the universities or QQI. Therefore providers will not be permitted to recruit non-EEA students to programmes leading to the awards of awarding bodies from outside the State. The rationale for this decision is set out in the policy statement "Regulatory Reform of the International Education Sector and the Student Immigration Regime". A number of characteristics common to the colleges of concern are identified, including that they cater mainly to non-EEA students, tend to charge unsustainably low fees, do not have in place arrangements for the protection of learners and "typically offer language programmes accredited by international bodies, vocational/management programmes whose awards are by overseas bodies or degree programmes that are franchised by UK universities".

The level of oversight exercised by such awarding bodies in relation to provision in Ireland has, in many cases, been found to be extremely low. Therefore, the decision to restrict enrolment of non-EEA students to programmes leading to quality-assured, Irish awards will serve to ensure that providers are required to have in place the necessary arrangements for quality assurance and to improve the overall quality of the offering for international learners.