A major overhaul of the immigrant jobs system to make it more flexible has been recommended by a Government advisory committee.
The proposed reforms include the removal of restrictions in the immigrant work permit scheme which contributed to the problems faced by 19 Moldovan workers detained in Mountjoy Prison last week.
The submission to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment comes from the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI). It follows consultation with trade unions, Government officials, and nurses' and employers' organisations.
The committee says the current one-year immigrant work permit scheme is "too inflexible and covers too many categories of workers". The scheme should be revised and preferably replaced by a range of different permit or visa schemes, said the NCCRI's director, Mr Philip Watt.
More than 18,000 permits to work in the Republic for 12 months were issued last year to citizens of 127 non-EU states - a threefold increase on the previous year.
Almost 1,400 fast-track work visas or authorisations were also issued. Under the two-year work visa scheme employees in specific sectors can automatically apply for their families to join them in Ireland, if they can show they can support them financially.
The NCCRI wants the automatic right to family reunification to be extended to all people on work permits who are going to be in Ireland for a considerable time.
It also wants the employee, not the employer as at present, to hold the permit. This means someone granted a work permit would not be tied to working for the employer in whose name the permit had been issued.
The 19 Moldovans detained in Mountjoy were refused entry to the State because the employer named on their valid work permits no longer had jobs for them.
Following much criticism of the authorities, the Minister for Justice announced new arrangements to allow temporary admission to the State for people with valid work permits whose original job offer had fallen through.
"If the individual owned the work permit, and not the employer, then it might avoid the embarrassing situation where jobs fall through like the recent experience of the Moldovans," said Mr Watt.
The rights of people with work permits "contrasts starkly" with those on the fast-track work visa scheme, for which only specific groups of professionals can apply, he added.
The NCCRI's recommendations also include:
The employment of migrant workers on equal terms and conditions with existing staff;
A more proactive approach to the recognition of qualifications;
Recruitment costs to be borne by the prospective employer and not the prospective employee;
Anti-racism and intercultural programmes to be provided for staff.
Mr Watt said his committee had carried out training programmes with three regional health authorities, as well as with staff in hospitals seeking to employ nurses, particularly from the Philippines.
SIPTU's midlands regional secretary, Mr Mike Jennings, said that immigrant workers who contacted it concerning reports of exploitation had "gone to ground" following the recent experience of the 19 Moldovans.
He said the men's imprisonment had "added hugely to the fear many immigrant workers have of speaking out against abuse and exploitation".