Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to respond to the debate on this very important subject. The Government recognises that recent events, such as the Irish Ferries dispute, have caused concern that there might be some link between that dispute and the attempt by the European Union to create a single market in services. I wish to emphasise on behalf of the Government that there is not. The services directive would not permit social dumping or the exploitation of workers and it would not be supported by the Government if it did.

The broader debate on migrant workers and the growing numbers of these workers in modern Ireland overshadows our debate. There are two important aspects to this wider debate on migrant workers: fears among some people that Ireland is being swamped by non-national workers and the possibility of these workers displacing their Irish counterparts; and the need to protect the rights, pay and conditions of these workers.

The recent opinion poll has confirmed what many of us know, namely, that the public has concerns about this issue. I welcome the contribution of Deputy Howlin to this debate and I have listened carefully to Deputy Rabbitte of the Labour Party. In a reckless and opportunistic way, Deputy Rabbitte had tapped into those concerns, fuelling them to the exclusion of explaining or contextualising them. Rather than providing leadership on this issue he is, by his utterances, inciting fears of the perceived threat of EU migrant workers among some sections of our population.

In a reference to Polish workers who are making a substantial contribution to our economic development he reminds us that "[t]here are 40 million or so Poles after all". The clear message is that these Poles could come here and take our jobs. His comments run counter to the notion of a social Europe, a Union of openness and equality that his party has supported since we joined the European Union.

It is most unfortunate that the leader of a Labour Party, for the first time in the history of the Labour Party in Ireland, would pursue such a conservative, anti-European and unenlightened policy on immigration. Deputy Rabbitte bases his arguments regarding the displacement of Irish workers on anecdotal evidence. It is a well established fact that sound public policy can never be based on foundations as flimsy as anecdotal evidence. Comments on the issue of migrant workers and in particular on the issue of the possible displacement of Irish workers must be measured and accurate. As I said, there is understandable anxiety among the public concerning the potential impact of migrant workers on Irish jobs and wages. However, such concerns do not appear to be substantially grounded or to have a concrete basis in fact. On the contrary, there appears to be little evidence to warrant widespread concern. The facts are that since our employment market was opened up to migrant workers from the accession states in 2004, our unemployment rate has actually fallen.

All economic forecasts appear to agree that Ireland's economy is strong and continues to grow. Our employment rates still grow at a phenomenal rate and look likely to do so for the foreseeable future. There is growth in all areas of employment, including women returning to the workplace and the employment of older people. The evidence available suggests that the migratory pattern of workers is directly related to work available. The numbers of migrant workers travelling to Sweden, which has a similar open policy to ours, has dramatically fallen in line with the slow down in its economic growth.

There are issues we need to address in this debate: the need for the Government to engage with the social partners on the rights, pay and conditions of all workers, Irish and non-Irish, employed in this country; the need to continue to enforce our employment law in a growing labour market and the need to continue a policy of upskilling our workforce.

I welcome Archbishop Martin's thoughtful contribution to this wider debate, which I know will continue for some time. I acknowledge the important data compiled by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on the numbers of migrant workers here in Ireland. Their work on the forthcoming census will be helpful in clarifying the make-up of the population of modern Ireland.

There is much confusion surrounding this debate and it is interesting to note Commissioner Vladimir Spidla's comments in The Irish Times today that the states which imposed restrictions on the ten new EU states when they joined the EU in May 2004 had seen "an increase in undeclared work, bogus self-employed work, dishonest sub-contracting and other such undesirable consequences", according to preliminary conclusions of studies undertaken by the Commission.

I say to Deputy Rabbitte, let us conduct this debate in a measured, constructive and honest way rather than in a divisive, disingenuous and destructive manner. Returning to the services directive, it is clear from the contributions that there are concerns about this proposal, which are shared by the Government. As the Minister made clear in his remarks, Ireland has sought improvements to the original proposal published by the Commission and, indeed, we still have a great many concerns that we want to see examined before we can give our support to the proposal.

See this speech in context