Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I do not accept that the other political parties were not involved in this process. I participated in a number of discussions at Oireachtas committees about the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union. The question of whether free access would be given to workers from those countries was discussed at those meetings. I made the point on many occasions, as I did in my earlier reply, that Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom were the only three of the 15 pre-2004 member states to give free access to workers from the ten new countries which joined the EU in May 2004. It is estimated that approximately 275,000 people from those accession countries have been given personal public service numbers in this State, which has a population of 4.2 million, over a relatively short space of time. Approximately 500,000 such people went to the UK, which has a population of 56 million, over the same period. Just 10,000 people from the accession states went to Sweden, which was the only other country to allow free labour market access, in the same timeframe. That is an indication that Ireland has done its bit to provide for free access, by and large.

The Government examined the situation carefully before it made this decision. It considered the recommendations of the social partners and the views which were expressed in this House. I cannot comment on the request that was made to the Department of the Taoiseach, which was highlighted by Deputy Allen just now. Like the Minister who has direct responsibility for work permits, Deputy Martin, I was willing to come to the House or a committee meeting to discuss this issue at any time. I welcome the fact Fine Gael supports the Government's view, which concurs exactly with the statements made by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the social partners, on the current situation. It should be emphasised that under the system in place at EU level, countries like Ireland which continue to keep restrictions in place will ultimately have to provide for free access after a relatively short time — a seven-year period at the very most. After separate periods of two years, two years and three years have passed, countries which have put restrictions in place will have to open their labour markets.

A number of countries, including some major countries in the EU which did not allow free access in 2004, have yet to open their borders to the member states which acceded to the Union in that year. Ireland has done more than its fair share by allowing free access to its labour market. While we acknowledge the principle of free access, we ultimately have to bear in mind all the various considerations, which we have done in a reasoned way. We were in fairly constant contact with our colleagues in Britain about what they were doing in this regard. It does not relate to the issue of the common travel area between Ireland and Britain. It relates more to the fact that if the British authorities introduced restrictions but we did not, Ireland would be the only English-speaking country in the EU without any restrictions. In our view, that might have led to larger numbers than normal coming to our shores.

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