True but when 3 people who have already got FAA IR's, over a thousand hours each and have instructed for over a year all fail within two or three weeks of each other, I'd have to question them.
Mmm.. not really. JAA IR is different, and harder. And instructing for 1,000+ hours doesn't mean you're automatically good at IFR flying. Also, having an FAA IR can be a disadvantage, as you may have learnt to do things a different way, and it also puts pressure on you to convert to JAA IR in the minimum hours.