Cheers folks....
I too popped a mail off to the IAA, no response. In conversation to an Irish student in the UK, he confirmed that the schools certainly prefer medicals from Gatwick, and to save him the bother he simply said nothing about the first medical and obtained a JAA medical (from gatwick).
(To be honest I dont know what medical he had from IAA).
I guess it is just a case of watching this space.....
VF