Ireland is to become a much more culturally diverse society in the next decade and should learn from the mistakes of other countries in managing the move towards that changed society.
The State must deal with immigration in a systematic way and get away from "the crisis management approach which we have at present", the document says.
It proposes three core principles on which national policy on immigration should be based. The policy must be:
reasonable, in that it is responsive to the skills needs of the Irish economy and the prevailing situation in the Irish labour market;
responsible, in that it recognises that we cannot operate an open-door immigration policy;
rights-based, in that it upholds and vindicates the rights of visitors, immigrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in line with our international obligations in a transparent and accountable way.
The document proposes that a "specialist executive agency" be established to handle all applications for asylum. The new agency should have substantial additional staff and accommodation and would subsume the existing Asylum Task Force which runs the "one-stop shop" for asylum-seekers in Dublin's Mount Street.
Applicants for asylum should be given an initial interview within one month and have appeals heard within three months of making them. "Unless we move towards these targets the increasing inflows of people will undermine our existing asylum and immigration procedures completely," the document says.
The Refugee Agency should have its remit broadened beyond dealing with "programme" refugees from countries such as Vietnam and Bosnia, to cover individuals who have sought and been granted asylum in the State. The agency could also co-ordinate the temporary integration and welfare needs of asylum-seekers.
The document proposes a system by which non-EU workers with particular skills would obtain visas to work in Ireland. This would replace the existing regime of work permits. Under the scheme the Government would:
identify, in consultation with the social partners, the areas of the labour market where skills shortages exist.
issue work visas to non-EU nationals with the appropriate skills for specified time periods.
The document maintains there may be 50,000 unfilled job vacancies in the State, with severe problems in particular sectors. This new system, with visas being granted on the basis of skills needs rather than being assigned on a numerical basis to particular countries, "would enable us to access the skills we need while providing others with the kind of opportunities from which we ourselves benefited in our less fortunate times".
Finally, the draft proposes measures to ensure that racism does not take hold in society. These include public-awareness campaigns, the teaching of values of tolerance through the education system, the establishment of a race-relations forum and the even distribution of the immigrant population to avoid ghetto-isation.