Ireland is keen to take collaboration with India in trade, education, and research further, shared Irish Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, James Lawless, during his first official visit to India.

The minister shared that a significant and sizeable Indian community is already thriving in the education and employment sectors in Ireland. For its part, Ireland has a “visa arrangement where if an Indian student comes to Ireland to study, their visa continues for 2 years after a postgraduate. So, if they do a postgraduate course, they have a 2-year window to seek employment, and they can stay on for that time, and then if they get employment, and they can stay on for that time, and then they get employment, they’ll have an employment visa.”

He added, while speaking to ANI, “So really it’s actually quite rare that Indian students or Indian workers have any visa issues because they’re coming to a job. They get a visa, they come to study to get a visa, and then there is a window to allow them to find a job after their studies. So it’s worked very well to date, and we’re happy with the program.”

The minister is currently leading a high-level delegation to New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, with one of the goals of the trip being to strengthen collaboration and ties between Irish and Indian universities. He has shared his plans to visit several Indian higher education institutions to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

“Ireland is working on new agreements and initiatives with Indian universities and research institutions, particularly in emerging fields like artificial intelligence, renewable energy, biotechnology, and digital transformation,” he shared.

Enterprise Ireland (EI), IDA Ireland, and the Embassy of Ireland in India are facilitating this trip as part of Ireland’s commitment to deepening bilateral relationships and engagement with India