Almost 48,000 immigrants were issued with work permits for Ireland last year to almost treble the number issued four years ago.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said today 47,551 employment permits were issued last year, a rise from 18,000 in 2000. Up to the end of July this year, some 25,011 permits have been issued.
As he announced Anti-Racist Workplace Week 2004, Mr McDowell said Ireland had now become a society of inward migration.
"An increasing number of people see Ireland as a place to which they can come, not just for a holiday or a short educational course, but for a more long-term and settled purpose," he said.
"We are now in a comparatively novel situation in that Ireland needs immigrants to share in our prosperity and make their own contribution to that prosperity. Mr McDowell said Ireland was now a country of net immigration.
Mr McDowell said it was important to safeguard the rights of workers in a more multicultural Ireland against racism.
"Irish society continues to become a more diverse place. The evidence for that is all around us, not least, in our places of work," he said.
"The workplace is a key interface for people of all backgrounds Irish and non-Irish and we have a responsibility to ensure that workplace policy and practices reflect and reasonably accommodate the diverse backgrounds of workers in the State - be they Irish citizens from ethnic minorities, members of the Travelling community or immigrant workers."