International English language student representatives have told an Oireachtas committee hearing that the number of hours that students are allowed to work should be increased from 20 to 30 per week in order to combat exploitation by some employers.
Fiachra Ó Luain of the English Language Students Union of Ireland told the Oireachtas Committee on Education that non-EU students who come to Ireland on special visas to learn English and work, cannot survive on the wages earned from working only the legal limit of up to 20 hours per week.
The committee heard that while non-EU students were allowed to work up to 40 hours during the summer months, a 20 hour weekly limit was imposed for the rest of the year.
Calling the 20 hour limit "a myth" however, Mr Ó Luain said the reality was that students were being left with no option but to work longer hours illegally in order to make ends meet, and that sometimes they were being paid below the minimum wage for the additional hours they worked.
Mr Ó Luain said the limit left students with little English, "who are less likely to know their rights or know how to complain when things go wrong", vulnerable to exploitation which increasing the legal working hours to 30 per week would help combat.
He also complained of "very little, if any" enforcement of rules in the sector.
"When transgressions of schools and agents are identified," he told politicians, "rarely does there seem to be any consequences".
The Irish Council for Overseas Students also called for more oversight, regulation and monitoring of the sector.
Laura Harmon of ICOS said an independent external regulatory body needed to be established. ICOS said it wanted to see more inspections of schools being carried out, and also enforcement of the rules.
Warning of a current lack of oversight, Brian Harmon of ICOS said: "We just want to ensure that the people who come here have a good experience, and get what they paid for".
Ms Harmon said students were working in sectors that were crucial for the Irish economy but that the cost of living here was a huge issue for them and they were especially vulnerable to things like accommodation scams.
"They are learning English", said Itzel Monserrat Martinez Murillo, who attended with the English Language Students Union of Ireland, "so they can't defend themselves when they have a problem".
Both the Students Union and ICOS raised concerns around what they said was the unfair expulsion of students from schools.
Marketing English in Ireland (MEI), which represents schools in the sector, told the committee that the business was worth more than €1 billion to the Irish economy and that it employed 2,000 teachers year round, rising to 3,000 during the summer months.
Aidan O'Shea of MEI said schools regarded the decision to limit working hours for students for most of the year to 20 hours as a very strange one which did not make sense.
