More than 20,000 migrant workers will be needed every year to fill future job vacancies and thus maintain economic growth, the head of the Irish Small to Medium Enterprises association (ISME) told the group's conference yesterday.

Calling for the introduction of a comprehensive immigration policy, Mr Robert Berney, chairman of ISME, said Ireland would increasingly be competing against countries such as the UK and Germany, as well as central and eastern Europe, for such labour.

"The construction, catering and food processing sectors, together with the hospitality sector, are almost completely reliant on immigrant labour in order to stay in business," he said.

"It is absolutely essential, therefore, that these individuals, together with those already in the country, are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve, and afforded the same rights and opportunities available to Irish employees."

While the "vast majority" of migrant workers enjoy good working conditions, Mr Berney said that, in a limited number of cases, they were not being afforded the same opportunities or conditions of employment as other employees.

"ISME as an association could not and would not condone any such abuse of immigrant workers and will play our part in ridding this economy of any such rogue practices," he said.

"There is considerable room for improvement in immigration policy and its implementation. [ It] has a direct link with competitiveness and we should benchmark against those countries competing with us to attract and retain skilled mobile labour."