The current controversy over immigration presents new dangers and challenges. The ESRI expects the numbers in employment to reach 1.5 million this year, 1.7 million in 2005 and to continue to grow by 1.6 per cent per annum from then until 2010.
Even assuming the childcare issue is reasonably addressed, the requirement for significant numbers of immigrant workers is now generally acknowledged. Indeed, one economist has been quoted as declaring that the implementation of the National Development Plan will entail the involvement of 160,000 immigrants.
Tom Kitt, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, has also floated a proposal to recruit 10,000 people from central and eastern Europe.
Viewed against these realities the scenes at the Refugee Application Centre have been properly criticised as displaying an appalling absence of policy coherence. Unless we are to repeat the errors of Britain and France the policy which eventually emerges must be both coherent and "enlightened".
The Government's plan to introduce visa programmes to attract immigrants is welcome. But we must do more than respond to the needs of the labour market. Policy development in this area must take account of existing inequalities in our society.
Consider the following:
10 per cent of the population is recorded as being in "consistent poverty".
Female industrial workers still earn less than 70 per cent of their male counterparts.
Ireland is second only to Portugal in the Eurostat measure of income inequality.
According to the Department of the Environment 39,176 households were in need of local authority housing in March this year, an increase of 43 per cent on 1996.
There are 38,000 people on hospital waiting lists.
Despite "full employment" there are still 180,000 on the live register.
Any immigration policy, however well intentioned, has no prospect of success in face of such glaring inequality. Herein lies fertile breeding grounds for racial tension and scapegoating of those who are weak and "different".
Thus, an "enlightened" approach entails confronting far more powerful and daunting forces than development of a regulatory mechanism. Remember it is not so long ago that our Supreme Court deemed property rights superior to the rights of people with disabilities to access employment.
Little wonder then that some have chosen to play the "race card". It serves at once to distract attention from the endless series of public scandals, and the greater scandal of social inequality, while directing the anger of the excluded on those least fortunate of all.
The universally critical reaction from the print media is welcome. However, there has been little coverage of the plight of increasing numbers of EU nationals working in catering establishments on rates and conditions inferior to those agreed for similar work in unionised locations.
Recently, Portuguese workers have begun working in a number of meat-processing plants. Recruited by various agencies, they receive the appropriate rates in unionised plants, but deductions are recorded in respect of travel, accommodation and the agent's "commission". Concern is growing among unions about the extent of those deductions and the nature of the employment relationship itself. We must not allow immigrant workers to become a source of cheap labour for unscrupulous employers. It is morally repugnant in itself. Moreover, such vulnerable people may be used as a means of undermining the conditions of Irish workers. Thus, SIPTU's South-East Regional Committee, recognising mutual interests, last week called for a series of measures designed to prevent abuse. These entailed:
the establishment of a properly staffed immigrant workers right section in the Department of Enterprise and Employment.
the monitoring of statutory rights to ensure employment on terms no less favourable than those negotiated by the trade unions organising in the relevant industries.
to encourage immigrant workers to become members of and participate in the trade unions appropriate to their grade and employment.
In the European context the numbers involved are "minimal". Only one in three refugee applications is approved. This year it is estimated 6,500 work permits will be issued. Last year 5,600 were issued, hardly overwhelming in the context of 1.5 million employed.
Nonetheless, development of policy must be cognisant of the realities. Liberal indignation and criticism of the low-paid porters and other workers in the Refugee Applications Centre, although well intentioned, was both misplaced and counterproductive. These workers are as much the victims of the absence of policy as the angry, frightened refugees they have to deal with, without proper training or support.
Before focusing on others it should be said that the issue presents a challenge for our trade unions, too. SIPTU has played its part with an equality unit designed to promote a multiracial society.
The Hotels and Catering Branch has been promoting workers' rights in that industry by means of multilingual material.
GOVERNMENT policy should reflect the anticipated needs of the labour market, but the issue cannot be left to its tender mercies. Any policy should also provide for a quota of people from poor countries, enabling us to benefit from each other. We are presented with the challenge of cultivating a "culture of equality". This entails Government intervention to rectify the social and economic ills listed earlier.
Paradoxically, the economic necessity for a growing immigrant workforce to retain internationally mobile investment and sustain economic growth can only be met by deployment of the benefits of that growth to remove inequality, eliminate poverty and build a cohesive, egalitarian society. It is also the way to reconcile the concept of "standards of living" with "quality of life" and prevent the emergence of the cancer of racism.
If our society, given our painful experience of emigration, our exposure to the lessons of neighbouring economies and a budget surplus of £5.7 billion, cannot face up to the challenge, there is little hope.
Jack O'Connor is regional secretary for SIPTU in the midlands and south-east
