IR in Spain
I spoke to personnel licencing in the CAA this morning and they suggested I look outside of the UK. The only thing he said to check, is that the school is registered by th Spanish authorities for running a JAA IR and the licence is current.
The link to the JAA page shows the same standard for FCL1 in spain and there are plenty of schools doing JAR ATPL courses for fixed wing.
I could be wrong, I suppose if any schools come up, the thing to do is ring them and see what they say.