Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak here and contribute to this debate. It is important to mention some facts about integration. I appreciate that the focus tonight is on workers' rights but in the case of migrant workers we must also deal with family and other related issues. The number of non-Irish people living here stands at 10% of the population according to the official census figures of last year but the Central Statistics Office was quick to point out before Christmas last that this is an underestimate of the population which could be anything between 12% and 15%. We must devise a system that can respond to the needs of migrant workers and put them to good effect to develop our labour market and the productive capacity of our economy.

Half a million of the people living in Ireland today were not born here. That is a higher percentage by a considerable margin than is the case for the United States, the United Kingdom or France which have a much greater history of inward migration than we do. It is a tribute to the people who have migrated here and to those already living here that we have not experienced some of the problems evident in other European countries despite the short time of ten years within which migration has occurred here. We welcome people and value their contribution to life here in every sense, economic, social and cultural. We have an obligation to assist people to integrate into society not just because they contribute to the labour force but also because migration and how countries manage migration is and will be a defining way to manage social stability.

It is not often acknowledged in this House that social stability, through the partnership process created by Mr. Charles Haughey in 1987, has been the anchor for recent Irish prosperity. It has defined our success. Many have concentrated on other issues such as tax cuts but the partnership process has guaranteed rights, put minimum wage legislation in place and guaranteed, protected and developed a culture of developing the rights of workers.

We have an obligation to assist people to integrate within Irish life not just for moral reasons but for productive and capacity reasons such as improving the capacity of our trained workforce. The establishment of the National Employment Rights Agency is important for Irish and non-Irish workers alike. The agency has employed ten people with foreign language skills, an appropriate and proper response by such an agency to the diverse nature of our workforce and society.

I am sure I was not the only Member to be shocked by reports of recent cases of exploitation of vulnerable workers. The only consolation anyone can take from these cases is that the system came to the assistance of the injured party. Hopefully the new agency will be better equipped to detect and deter further wrongdoing. I join my colleagues in urging anyone who suspects exploitation of workers to report their suspicions to this new agency.

The implementation of the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill will also assist vulnerable migrant workers. It is important that people see the positive side of this Bill which is going through both Houses. It will provide for permanent residence in Ireland, giving migrants every entitlement short of voting in general elections and availing of consular services when abroad. All other entitlements enjoyed by citizens will flow to those who have long-term residence here. The Bill is a ground-breaking attempt to deal with what will be a defining feature of Irish life for the next ten to 30 years, inward migration due to affluence and our improving economy and society.

The establishment of my office for integration to co-ordinate the actions of Departments and other service providers will help the vulnerable migrant worker. One of the best ways to improve life for migrant workers is to improve their language skills. In primary and post-primary schools we employ more than 1,900 language support teachers, compared with 262 in the school year of 2001-2. That is a significant jump over a short period. The Department of Education and Science provides this service at a cost of the order of €120 million a year. The Department and my office are also addressing those who are beyond school-leaving age. Many VECs already provide English language classes and public libraries do valuable work, for instance, the work of Dublin Corporation through the ILAC library.

More needs to be done in this area and my office and the Department of Education and Science have engaged independent consultants to review the area to help the development of policy and the delivery of language classes to adult migrants. The estimated demand for English language learning is four times the supply. There is a major challenge to ramp up the level of service provision, to allow the many migrants to make an even greater contribution to our productive capacity.

According to the CSO data the profile of the migrants is distinctly different from that which has obtained traditionally in large European countries. They are predominantly from central and eastern Europe, of Judeo-Christian background, half are Catholic, in the key working age demographic, 28 to 44, and are overqualified for the jobs they do. Therein lies the challenge for this Government, and I suspect everybody in the House, of how to develop the productive capacity of those who are overqualified for the type of jobs they do.

We must break down the barriers that prevent them from progressing within our society and in so doing, even from a self-interested, economic and rather narrow perspective, we can improve the productive capacity of our economy and society.

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