Irish Examiner view: Decision on English language schools may impact economy 

Government may find this is a challenge which goes beyond tightening standards at language schools

Higher education minister James Lawless said there were 'suggestions of courses where you’d go into a classroom, there’d be maybe two students there and a class of 100 on the roll'.

Yesterday, we learned that the Government is planning to target English language schools which are not focused on teaching newcomers to Ireland the basics of grammar but are, in the words of higher education minister James Lawless, a “convenient backdoor for immigration”.

There has been a good deal of speculation about the exact nature of some such schools, and whether they are truly educational establishments rather than “convenient backdoors” for workers, in the minister’s phrase.