Choosing an English school in Ireland: what to check before you pay

In June 2026, an English school in Limerick stopped teaching without warning. Around 250 students were enrolled and another 300 had already paid without having arrived in Ireland. Teachers had been unpaid since April. The students were left with no classes, no money and their student permission at risk, because attendance and test results are recorded every week and feed into immigration.

It was not an isolated case. In September 2026, another school in the same city, open for more than 35 years, closed after being removed from the official list of courses accepted by immigration. In July, the Irish Times had already reported(opens in new tab) that half a dozen schools were facing removal from that same list for failing to return fees to students whose visas were refused.

The question that decides whether you lose what you paid comes before price and location: will this school still exist in six months, and is your money protected if it does not?

Does any of this apply to you?

Citizenship decides, and what counts is the passport you hold. A citizen of a European Union member state, or of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, can study at any school in Ireland, including schools on no official list, with no cap on working hours, no minimum attendance and no compulsory exam. Those are immigration rules, and Citizens Information(opens in new tab) states it plainly: EEA (European Economic Area) and Swiss citizens do not register with immigration. The exact list of countries in that group(opens in new tab) is on the immigration service's website. The group is smaller than "Europe": Serbia, Ukraine and Albania, for example, sit outside it.

UK citizens are outside these rules too: the Common Travel Area(opens in new tab) gives them the right to live, work and study in Ireland without immigration permission.

If your citizenship is outside those groups, the immigration rules below apply and the rest of this article is written for you. One part applies to every reader regardless of passport: the section on financial protection. Schools close either way. What changes in your budget is covered in the cost of living in Ireland(opens in new tab).

The list that defines what counts

If you need immigration permission to study, your course has to appear on an official list. There are currently two: the ILEP, short for Interim List of Eligible Programmes(opens in new tab), administered by the Department of Justice, and the list of schools already authorised to use the TrustEd Ireland(opens in new tab) mark. Outside those two, there is no student permission.

Two things matter when you check.

The list covers the course, not the school. One school can have an eligible course and an ineligible one. Check the exact name of the course you are taking, not just the school.

Check the current version, because schools also come off the list. Removal from the ILEP is what closed the Limerick school in September 2026. A copy saved three months ago may already be out of date.

For an English course to be included on the ILEP, it has to meet minimum criteria set by immigration:

• Run for at least 25 weeks
• Have at least 15 class hours per week, not counting breaks
• No more than 15 students per class
• Classes between 9am and 5pm, on at least four days a week, Monday to Friday

The 15 hours are the minimum, and many schools offer 20. If you are 26 or over, that number is worth money, and the reason is in the question about weekly hours further down.

The ILEP ends in late 2026

The ILEP was always interim, as the name says. QQI, the state agency for education quality, created its own mark called TrustEd Ireland to replace it. According to QQI, the ILEP operates until the decisions from the second application window are announced, scheduled for the final quarter of 2026, and that window was the last one(opens in new tab): after it, only schools authorised to use the TrustEd mark will be able to recruit students from outside the European Economic Area.

The first English schools received the mark in August 2026(opens in new tab), and the second-window applications are under review. The list of authorised schools lives on the official TrustEd Ireland site(opens in new tab), which is where you check whether a particular school holds the mark.

What this means in practice: if your course starts in 2027, confirm that the school holds or has applied for the TrustEd mark. Being on the ILEP today does not guarantee it can take you tomorrow. Deadlines like this tend to slip; before paying, check which list is in force on the ISD course page(opens in new tab) and on the TrustEd Ireland site.

What learner protection guarantees, and what it failed to

Every school on the lists must have learner protection in case the course is cut short. There are now three forms(opens in new tab): insurance, where an insurer refunds unspent fees; an academic bond, where you finish the course at another school; or the statutory protection fund managed by QQI, for schools in the TrustEd scheme. The cover runs from enrolment and payment through to completing the course and the final exam.

Your letter of acceptance is required to state(opens in new tab) which type of protection covers you. If it is through insurance, the school must give you a certificate in your own name, with the insurer's contact details and instructions for making a claim; it usually arrives by email after you pay.

The problem is that this requirement exists on paper and has already failed in practice. When a Galway school went into liquidation in 2023, some students finished their course elsewhere thanks to the protection, but the refunds never came: according to the Irish Council for International Students(opens in new tab), around €40,000 was owed to students and agencies, and some students held proof of paying for protection the school never took out(opens in new tab). A year and a half after paying, they were still without the money.

This is exactly what TrustEd is meant to fix. The mark brings a protection fund managed by QQI itself, which every authorised school must contribute to, requires an assessment of the school's financial and legal structures and business plan before authorisation, and includes an on-site inspection. The difference is not in the rule, it is in who enforces it and who holds the money.

What to ask before you sign

Six questions. All of them have a documentary answer, and a serious school will not hesitate.

1. Send me the learner protection certificate in my name. If the protection is through insurance, that document is required and carries the instructions for making a claim. If the school stalls, be suspicious.

2. Where is your refund policy published? The school is required to publish a policy on its website(opens in new tab) with the maximum time a refund can take, which cannot exceed two months. For students whose visa is refused, the refund must go out within 20 working days. Holding back exactly this kind of refund is what put schools under sanction in 2026(opens in new tab).

3. Is the final exam fee included in the price? The end-of-course exam is compulsory if you hold student permission, and without it you cannot renew. The school is required to list all costs before you enrol(opens in new tab), including exam fees, and cannot accept fees in cash: payment goes by bank transfer.

4. How many class hours per week, not counting breaks? The list requires at least 15, and many schools offer 20. If you are 26 or over, that number decides whether you qualify for the Student Leap Card(opens in new tab), and the difference reaches €300 over a 25-week course. The arithmetic is in the cost of living in Ireland(opens in new tab).

5. What is the absence and expulsion policy? The school is required to have published policies on attendance, absenteeism and expulsion. You have to keep 85% attendance, and some schools are stricter than that. Read it before you sign.

6. Is health insurance included, and what does it cover? Non-EEA students need private medical insurance(opens in new tab) covering accident, disease and hospitalisation, with the evidence in English. Many schools sell it as part of the package. Compare it against what you would find on your own.

The rules that fall on you, not the school

Choosing the right school does not help if you lose your permission through carelessness. Four obligations, published by immigration(opens in new tab), apply to every non-EEA student:

85% attendance. Attendance is recorded at every class and feeds into immigration. Below 85%, you do not renew.

End-of-course exam. Compulsory, and the proof is required at renewal.

One fixed class. You are enrolled in one specific class for the full duration of the course.

Eight months per course, three courses maximum. Each English course gives up to 8 months of permission, and you can take at most three, which adds up to two years. Staying on as a student after that means enrolling in a higher education course that is also on the lists. Factor that ceiling in from your first choice, because it defines your horizon in the country.

What about the ACELS seal?

Many schools display "recognised by ACELS", a teaching quality seal administered by QQI. The scheme is closed to new applications(opens in new tab), so a school without the seal may simply be a newer school that never had the chance to apply. And it is on its way out: with TrustEd's arrival, QQI is discontinuing ACELS(opens in new tab), with no automatic transfer from one scheme to the other.

ACELS never had anything to do with immigration and does not protect your money. Treat it as supporting information, not as your main criterion.

Still deciding

Order it this way, not by price.

First, confirm the specific course is on the current version of the ILEP(opens in new tab) or on the TrustEd Ireland list(opens in new tab). Without that, there is no student permission.

Second, check whether the school already holds the TrustEd mark, or ask whether it applied in the second window. The closer your course is to 2027, the more this matters.

Third, ask for the learner protection certificate and the refund policy before paying anything.

Only then compare price, city and schedule. A cheap school that closes costs far more than the difference in price.

Already decided

Keep and check these documents:

1. Letter of acceptance, stating which type of learner protection covers you
2. Learner protection certificate in your name, if the protection is through insurance
3. Proof of payment by bank transfer, because schools cannot accept cash
4. Written terms and conditions, with every cost listed, including the exam fee
5. The published refund policy, with its deadlines
6. Health insurance policy, with the evidence in English

These documents are your position if something goes wrong. Without them, it is that of the Galway students who waited a year and a half for a refund that never arrived.

Sources

• Student obligations, learner protection, refunds and payment rules: Immigration Service Delivery, Frequently asked questions for students(opens in new tab), page updated 31 March 2025
• English language programme criteria (class size, hours, protection types): Immigration Service Delivery, English language programme criteria, March 2025(opens in new tab)
• Eligible course lists (ILEP and TrustEd Ireland) and minimum course length: Immigration Service Delivery, A third-level course or a language course(opens in new tab), page updated 22 September 2026
• TrustEd Ireland mark and the end of the ILEP: QQI announcement, 5 August 2026(opens in new tab) and QQI, information for English language providers(opens in new tab)
• List of authorised schools: trustedireland.ie(opens in new tab)
• ACELS status: Point of Single Contact, English language schools(opens in new tab)
• Compulsory medical insurance: Immigration Service Delivery, Private Medical Insurance(opens in new tab)
• EEA and Swiss residence rights: Citizens Information, Residence rights of EU citizens and their families in Ireland(opens in new tab)
• Countries of the EU, EEA and Switzerland: Immigration Service Delivery, EU/EEA country or Switzerland(opens in new tab)
• UK citizens in Ireland: Citizens Information, The Common Travel Area(opens in new tab)
• Closure of the Limerick school in June: RTÉ, 26 June 2026(opens in new tab)
• Closure of the Limerick school in September: Limerick Post, 21 September 2026(opens in new tab)
• Sanctions over withheld refunds: The Irish Times, 18 July 2026(opens in new tab)
• Money owed to students after the Galway closure: ICOS, April 2023(opens in new tab) and ICOS, July 2023(opens in new tab)
• Leap Card caps: Transport for Ireland(opens in new tab)

Verified on 25 September 2026. Immigration rules and the ILEP to TrustEd transition change; if you are reading this months later, check the original sources before paying for anything.