No to Nice campaigners who are warning about "floods" of east European migrants flocking to Ireland after enlargement have come in for further criticism.
The Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, said that the anti-Nice campaigners had dramatically shifted their position on immigration in an attempt to restore credibility.
The European Anti-Poverty Network, which represents 250 community and voluntary organisations in Ireland, said the assumption that immigration was to be feared was "spurious".
The network's co-ordinator, Mr Robin Hanan, rejected claims by Mr Anthony Coughlan, of the National Platform, an anti-Nice group, that immigration from new EU member-states would lead to "huge extra demands" on Irish public services.
Writing in the network's latest newsletter, Mr Hanan said: "The most authoritative studies of potential migration from the accession countries show that between 1.8 per cent and 2.4 per cent of the population may want to move to the 'old' EU countries, far less than the migration from Italy, Ireland, Spain or Portugal in the 1980s. Most want to move to the neighbouring countries, not Ireland."
More importantly, he said, far from being a drain on the economy, immigration was a vital requirement for growth. "The UK Home Office estimated that, in 2001, immigrants contributed £2.6 billion more than they gained from the state. In other words, it is the indigenous communities which sponge off the immigrants."
Mr Hanan told The Irish Times that the Anti-Poverty Network was not taking any position on the treaty. Rather, it was concerned about the EU closing off external borders. "Immigration scares are not always rational or logical. Starting rumours or scares like this one is quite worrying," he added.
Mr Coughlan admitted earlier this week that the immigration issue was not related to the treaty. But it was relevant to the cost of enlargement, he said, and on that basis he maintained that he was justified in raising it, even though he himself favoured enlargement.
Mr Coughlan has been joined in raising the issue by the No to Nice Campaign, whose spokesman, Mr Justin Barrett, promised to put immigration to "the fore in people's minds" in the run-up to October's referendum.
Their comments have led fellow No campaigners to accuse them of scaremongering. Mr Andy Storey, chairman of AfrI, which is campaigning for a No vote, said that the arguments raised on immigration were a "red herring" and had nothing to do with Nice.
Mr Roche said last night that the admission by Mr Coughlan that the issue of free movement was "not relevant" to the Nice Treaty raised serious questions.
"As recently as last month, Mr Coughlan was warning that 75 million east Europeans would be free to live and work in Ireland from January 2004 if Ireland ratified the treaty. His sudden U-turn owes itself in part to the fact that most of his allies in the No campaign have distanced themselves from the xenophobic debate he provoked."
Mr Roche said that the ICTU had had labelled Mr Coughlan's efforts and those of Mr Barrett as a "blatant attempt to frighten voters". He added: "Mr Coughlan has made scaremongering a feature of all his campaigns against Europe. His attempt to again raise the issue of migration is despicable and disingenuous.
"Existing surveys on migration patterns in Europe show that the claims are false. Ireland barely registers as a location in these surveys. The most recent research in Hungary and Poland shows no interest whatsoever in Ireland as a work location."
Mr Roche said that Ireland had operated a liberal work permit regime for people from the applicant countries. Only one-third of the 20,000 successful applications for permits this year came from the 10 applicant countries; 2,700 of those were renewals of existing permits.