Minister for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday said the retrospective introduction of work permits for workers from recent EU entrant states was infeasible.
He was reacting yesterday to the Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll, which showed that 78 per cent of respondents believed people from central and east European states that joined the EU in 2004 should now be required to apply for and receive work permits before coming here to work.
"The interests of Ireland depend on there being migration into the country at this stage," he said. "It can't be uncontrolled migration. I take that poll as saying to the Government, 'Remember that you have a power to control it and if needs be you should control it'."
The Minister was one of a number of senior politicians to comment on the poll results.
The Labour leader Pat Rabbitte yesterday accused Government TDs of doing a U-turn on the issue of migration, in contrast to their criticisms of his comments three weeks ago, when he called for a debate on the issue and suggested a work-permit system might be needed in the future for workers from within the EU in order to protect Irish pay and conditions.
He was reacting to comment by backbench TD Ned O'Keeffe (FF), who said there was a need for the Government to look after the interests of "natives".
He also suggested there may be a need to introduce "a quota system or do something in favour of having restrictions".
His comments were criticised by Senator Tom Morrissey (PD), who said: "I fully understand why people are concerned but I have a question for Ned O'Keeffe - do you employ only 'natives' on your farm, Ned? Indeed, is Ned O'Keeffe suggesting that farmers across Ireland should rely only on 'natives' to carry out the necessary work on their farms?"
Mr O'Keeffe has a large pig farm near Fermoy in Co Cork.
The former EU commissioner and newly appointed UN special representative on migration, Peter Sutherland, yesterday commented on the wider issue of migration.
Mr Sutherland said the problems many European countries and Japan experienced in expanding their economies were due to a poor demography and suggested there should be a "conjuncture of interests" between developed countries and migrant workers from the developing world. He described international migration as "the biggest issue of our time".
"If the big issue of the 1990s was globalisation of goods and services, the aspect of this which has not been taken on is the issue of migration," Mr Sutherland said.