Human dignity must be at the heart of the state's treatment of immigrant
workers as the country's population heads towards 4.5 million, it was claimed today.
The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) said there would be serious
implications for way people lived their lives and spent their money.
"Ireland's population passed four million last year for the first time since
1871 and it will reach 4.5m in about six years time. The challenges in that
context are massive because we will be becoming a very multicultural society in a very short time frame," said director Fr Sean Healy.
CORI is hosting a conference on the subject of human dignity in a globalised world in Dublin today.
Fr Healy said the experience of the GAMA construction workers was an example of the need for human dignity.
"You have a situation where people don't seem to have been paid anything
remotely close to the minimum wage and have been working excessive hours. It would certainly raise questions about whether human dignity was a priority for their employers."
The speakers at the conference will include the South African ambassador to Ireland , Melanie Verwoerd, and Sister Bernadette McMahon and Sister Margo Delaney of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice.
Fr Healy, whose organisation has been an outspoken critic of the Government at budget time, said he believed people were becoming more aware of the need for human dignity.
"I think people are beginning to recognise that it's very good to be better
off but that there are downsides as well. They're experiencing that as well
their longer working hours, a longer time to commute to work and less time to spend with their communities and families."
He added: "That brings it home to people that they need to keep an eye on
securing their own dignity and also the dignity of people around them."
Around 100 people from faith groups, community groups and trade unions are expected to attend the conference, which begins at 9am today in the Tara Towers hotel in Booterstown in Dublin.
PA