According to official estimates, 600,000 more migrant workers will be required in Ireland over the next 12 years if the economy continues to grow at current levels. How best to regulate the working conditions and rates of pay for these newcomers and their Irish colleagues has now become a major issue in politics and industrial relations. It needs to be handled honestly and sensitively.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte told this newspaper yesterday that unless basic standards for workers were established across the EU, Irish jobs would be threatened by displacement. The time may be coming "when we will have to sit down and examine whether we would have to look at whether a work permit regime ought to be implemented, even for countries in the EU". He recognised the many positive spin-offs from this new diversity of labour but said the assumption that it should remain unregulated no longer holds after the Irish Ferries dispute and given uncertainty about EU legislation. Concluding, he said, in a crude aside: "There are 40 million or so Poles, after all, so it is an issue we have to look at."
The future of social partnership hinges on whether a new deal will include strong measures to combat displacement and exploitation of workers, according to the union side. Siptu leader Jack O'Connor yesterday backed up Mr Rabbitte's remarks, saying that the previous "light touch" approach towards regulation cannot be effective with free movement of labour throughout the EU.
An honest public debate is needed. Do we want growth of the economy or have we reached a ceiling in the interest of Irish workers? This is the key national issue. The Government's position, repeated yesterday by Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin, is that this level of growth and immigration should continue, along with a public policy ensuring full labour law compliance to protect against displacement and exploitation. He criticised Mr Rabbitte for adopting a restrictive position.
Several organisations and commentators have asked whether current levels of growth and immigration are sustainable in the longer term. This issue should also be openly debated, given the growing vulnerability of traditional industries and the likely tension between Irish and migrant workers for jobs in the construction and other industries when growth slows. Employers and trade unions have different interests in seeking another partnership agreement.
But there is a need for confidence and sensitivity in the debate. Stronger public regulation and inspection of employment conditions and minimum wages at national and European levels, along with better trade union and employer organisation commitment to such norms, is a better approach than restricting the free movement of workers. This is a more constructive approach than blaming migrant workers for deteriorating conditions in the Irish labour market by restricting their access to it. Not all Poles want to come here.