Limits on students 'will cost €100m'

THE Irish economy could lose as much as €100 million because of work restrictions to be placed on certain foreign students from April, an education provider has warned.

From April 18, students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will not be allowed to work part-time unless the course they are taking is a year or longer and leads to a qualification recognised by the Department of Education.

The EEA consists of the EU member states, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Currently, non-EEA students can enter "casual" employment, defined by the Department of Justice as "up to 20 hours part-time work per week or full-time work during normal vacation periods."

But that entitlement will end in April for students on courses that run for fewer than 12 months.

When announcing the restriction in December, the justice department said it wanted to end abuse of the system as certain schools were selling their short-term courses as a convenient gateway to the Irish labour market.

But MEI-RELSA, the representative body for schools that teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL), says the restriction will deter genuine students from coming to Ireland. All EFL courses are under one year in duration, it points out.

The EFL sector is worth an estimated €300m a year to the Irish economy, according to a report published by the Department of Education last November.

Non-EEA students currently account for roughly one-third of that business, according to MEI-RELSA, which believes that they will simply go elsewhere from April, at a potential cost of up to €100m.

"Ireland is the only country which has such a regulation, and the market is subsequently handicapped in the face of competition from other EFL sectors, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and Malta," said MEI-RELSA spokesman, Tom Doyle.

MEI-RELSA is in China this week, trying, it says, to repair damage done by the announcement of the restriction. The organisation, an amalgamation of two bodies - Marketing English in Ireland (MEI) and the Recognised English Language Schools Association (RELSA) - is participating in the s trade mission to the country.

"In 2003, New Zealand changed regulations regarding its English language teaching sector which produced a similar warning from the Chinese government. The sector, worth $1 billion (€763m) per annum, dropped in value by 30% within the year."

Last night, the Department of Education said that it was preparing to collate a list of suitable courses.

"The department is currently developing criteria for inclusion on a list of approved courses for this purpose," a statement said.