Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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614. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of English language schools in the State that could have been subject to inspection by immigration officials in each of the past five years, and in 2025 to date, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65132/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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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).

Education providers were required to have met certain standards and requirements to have their programmes included on the ILEP and be accredited by recognised Irish awarding bodies. Providers must remain in compliance with the relevant criteria 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 to determine ongoing compliance with immigration requirements and ILEP criteria. Any education provider may be subject to unannounced inspections, on-line monitoring, or random spot checks to ensure its compliance with ILEP criteria, and this includes the maintenance of records and reports. These may be requested by my Department at any time and failure to do so can result in the removal of a provider from the ILEP.

The number of English Language schools that potentially could have been subject to physical inspections in 2025 was 86. The table below shows the number of in-person inspections carried out by my Department from 2020, up to 31 October 2025. Inspections are only one piece of a suite of compliance and monitoring activities.

**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.

Once a provider is listed on the ILEP, they are required to notify ISD 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 or teachers, and student capacity numbers.

ILEP is currently being superseded by TrustEd Ireland, the international education mark launched in September 2024 by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the Department of Further and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.

Once the ILEP is discontinued, only education providers granted authorisation to use the TrustEd Ireland mark will be eligible to recruit students from outside the EEA to English language programmes, foundation programmes and higher education programmes leading to awards within the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

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. Decisions are scheduled to issue in December 2025.