During the debates in connection with the second referendum on the Nice treaty the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs gave commitments in regard to the requirement in this legislation. However, when canvassing for the referendum, I found that people were concerned that we were giving concessions to applicant states which were not being given by other larger member states of the European Union and that our approach was more than generous. An assurance was given at the time, now included in the legislation before the House, that we would have a fail-safe mechanism whereby if we found after a period of time, given the freedom of movement of non-nationals inside the European Union from the new applicant states, that the numbers became very difficult to manage, we could put a brake on the number of applications. Some would say that is putting the cart before the horse. However, I believe the Minister should reconsider this and consider putting the fail-safe mechanism in place from day one. We could then assess the number of applications from the applicant states and would not be obliged to accept all applicants, irrespective of their ability to work, interest in getting employment, or the number of vacancies in the economy.