JAA IR: It will be interesting to see what they come up with to make it more FAA-like (not sure why they don't just copy). At the moment it seems to me a bit OTT in terms of what you need to go through to fly a small SEP through a cloud. Part of me feels however that the curriculum might be perceived to be worse than it is. I know piltos with JAA IR who I wouldn't consider to be overly strong academically.
Being a low-hour PPL student this certainly matches my view of the IR so far. Being potentially grounded by a few rainclouds seems like it's going to be an awful inconvenience once I get my PPL and start using it to fly places. OTOH the IR seems to be an awfully big step over just PPL+NQ in terms of the time and money required to attain one and keep it current.
Having not really researched the subject in depth yet (a bit early for me to care about such things until I have my PPL!), I'm left wondering "what the hell have they put in there to make the course so darn long, just so I can fly through a few clouds?!"
There's a good answer to this I'm sure - perhaps "they" simply don't WANT too many low hour SEP guys flying around in IFR?
That said I'm still committed to getting an IR one day, perhaps a few years after the PPL if I find myself using it enough to warrant spending the time and money.