Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has called for a reassessment of immigration policy in the light of the Irish Ferries dispute and evidence of the displacement of Irish workers in a range of industries, writes Stephen Collins, Political Correspondent
"The time may be coming when we will have to sit down and examine whether we would have to look at whether a work permits regime ought to be implemented in terms of some of this non-national labour, even for countries in the European Union," he said.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Rabbitte said that unless basic standards for workers were established across the EU, Irish jobs would be threatened.
The Labour leader also said that there would be no coalition with Fianna Fáil under his leadership.
On taxation, he committed himself to keeping personal and corporate tax rates at their present levels and refused to be drawn on whether he would propose any increase in capital taxation.
However, he said his party was looking at the idea of a minimum effective tax for the super rich.
On immigration, Mr Rabbitte said that the recent dispute at Irish Ferries had raised serious questions, particularly as the Government had been blocking the directive on agency workers in Europe and had also been blocking the maritime directive.
"If the EU services directive goes ahead you can establish a company in Poland or Latvia and come over here on contract and do an Irish Ferries. You get an agency to employ the workers here at domestic rates in Poland or Latvia. It is a big issue."
Mr Rabbitte said it was nonsense to argue, as Ibec and the Taoiseach had done during the Irish Ferries dispute, that the practice was confined to maritime industries.
"That is manifestly not the case. Displacement is going on in the meat factories and it is going on in the hospitality industry and it is going on in the building industry.
"What Irish Ferries has done has lanced the boil and we need to know more about the numbers coming here, the kind of work they are engaged in, the displacement effect, if any, on other sectors.
"We need to look at that because there is anecdotal evidence about it happening in construction, and happening in meat factories and happening in the hospitality industry."
Mr Rabbitte said that for the very same reasons Tánaiste Mary Harney invited Gama to come to Ireland, he did not expect there would be any outcry from Ibec about the situation because it was contributing to wage moderation.
"We can't compete now in the traditional type industries. The rate of attrition in terms of job losses has been far higher than we have acknowledged. It has been concealed by the scale of the boom. There are many positive spin-offs from the diversity of labour here now, but to say that that should for all time go unregulated I think has been thrown into question by the Irish Ferries dispute.
"There are 40 million or so Poles after all, so it is an issue we have to have a look at."
On tax he said the issue now was fairness in the system.
"There is a lot of merit in looking at the concept of a minimum effective tax for very high rollers. In other words that irrespective of your income, irrespective of the number of schemes and tax incentives that you avail of, that you still pay the minimum effective tax," he added.
On electoral strategy Mr Rabbitte said the divisiveness in the Labour Party that started a year ago was finished and that, despite "Fianna Fáil mischief", the party was united behind the strategy.
"I have made my bed and I am prepared to lie on it. I don't honestly think that it would be in the interests of the Labour Party at this particular juncture to put Fianna Fáil back in power and it won't happen under my leadership," he said.