Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I wish to share time with Deputies Cuffe and Ó Snodaigh.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this special day. Ireland was a country of emigration from the Great Famine in the 1840s until the early 1950s when the natural increase in population was offset by the population outflow. This was higher proportionately than in any other European country leading to a continuous decline in population for more than 100 years. Even after our accession to the EEC, Ireland's net immigration rate was insignificant. However, in the 1990s that began to change with the rate reaching 8%, the highest in the OECD. The unemployment rate in the early 1990s was 15% but the State is effectively operating at full employment now.

Immigration policy has been introduced on a piecemeal basis over the past 25 years. Ireland does not have a formal quota-based system, which uses country quotas or special immigration visas. Admission of immigrants has largely been controlled by employers with the onus on them to indicate the people they are bringing into the State have jobs. That led to difficulties because a number of employers retained the work permits. Can an audit be undertaken to determine the foreign worker needs of the agriculture and service industries? Could more effective co-ordination between Departments on immigration issues be achieved? We should address the possibility of a quota-based approach to certain countries to deal with the incidence of economic migration among asylum seekers.

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