Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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2041. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of inspections carried out of English language schools by immigration officials in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42326/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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2042. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the details of all reviews and assessments that have been carried out by his Department into the quality and standard of courses provided by English language schools in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42327/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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2045. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of inspections carried out by immigration inspectors of compliance with minimum standards of English for students applying for Irish immigration residence permissions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42330/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2041, 2042 and 2045 together.

In order for a non-EEA national student to register for a stamp 2 permission they must enrol and commence a course of study from the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP).

The ILEP was introduced as an interim measure as part of a series of reforms to the student immigration system for international education.

Programme providers were required to have met certain standards and requirements in order to have their programmes included on the ILEP and be accredited by recognised Irish awarding bodies. The final ILEP application cycle was completed in June 2025 and the ILEP is now closed. Providers must remain in compliance with the relevant criteria in order to retain a listing on the ILEP. Instances of non-compliance may result in removal from the ILEP.

My Department monitors activities and conducts inspections, including unannounced inspections, to determine ongoing compliance with immigration requirements and ILEP criteria.

The table below shows the number of inspections carried out by my Department from 2020, up to 25 July 2025.

**Up to and including 2024, the Garda National Immigration Bureau carried out further inspections for counties within their remit before the transfer of registration functions to my Department was complete.

Inspections are only one piece of a suite of compliance activities. Once a provider is on the ILEP list, they are required to notify the Immigration Service of matters such as, but not limited to, any changes to the ownership of the school, change in locations or additional centres, changes to their academic management/teachers, and student capacity numbers.

ILEP is being superseded by TrustEd Ireland, the international education mark launched in September 2024 by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. TrustEd Ireland is a new statutory quality mark and part of a suite of legislative measures designed to further protect international learners.

The new mark will be awarded to higher education and English language education providers who have demonstrated that they meet national standards to ensure a quality experience for international learners from pre-enrolment through to the completion of their programme of education and training. Applications are currently being reviewed for the first application cycle which closed in March 2025. The second application window is expected to open in Q4 2025.

As the ILEP was an interim measure, in the future, only providers authorised to use the TrustEd Ireland mark will be eligible to recruit non-EEA students for relevant programs. Further information is available on my Departments Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) website here: www.irishimmigration.ie