Detailed briefings provided to the Cabinet on the number of eastern European workers moving here indicate that more than 10,000 are arriving into the State each month, it has emerged.
The information, which forms part of a live register briefing each month, shows that the number of former EU accession state residents issued with Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSN) rose from an average of around 7,400 a month in 2004 to 11,000 a month towards the end of last year.
An age profile of those applying for PPSNs in May 2005 shows workers moving here are predominantly young, with two-thirds aged between 18 and 30 (66 per cent), just over one-fifth aged between 30 and 45 (22 per cent) and a small number aged between 45 and 60 (7 per cent).
More than half of former accession country workers have come from Poland, followed by Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Much smaller numbers have come from the other five accession states. Such workers have been free to enter and work in Ireland without a work permit since May 2005.
While PPSN numbers do not indicate whether a person has been working or not, data from the Revenue Commissioners suggest that more than two-thirds (70 per cent) took up some form of employment.
This data comes from commencement of employment records which were cross-referenced to PPSN numbers.
Other data based on the number of weeks that workers spent in insurable employment suggest that many students from former accession states worked here during the summer months and then returned to their home countries.
The average weekly earnings for eastern European workers here was €418.75, or annual earnings of around €21,000.
Live register data up to September of last year show just a small fraction of workers from former accession states were seeking unemployment benefit or assistance.
Out of 153,000 people on the live register, 1,318 (0.8 per cent) were from accession countries. Of this number, around half were receiving unemployment benefit or assistance, while the other half did not receive any payment.
The lack of payment may be a result of the habitual residency condition, a welfare restriction imposed by the Government which was aimed at targeting "welfare tourism".
Latest official statistics suggest that, overall, former accession country workers account for around 2 per cent of the workforce.
Foreign nationals - including those from the UK - make up around 8 per cent of the Irish labour force, one of the highest percentages in the EU.
As well as the influx of eastern Europeans, separate figures show an average of 20,000 Irish emigrants are returning to live here each year.
A total of 132,000 Irish people have returned home since 2001. The figure peaked between 2002 and 2004, when more than 61,000 came back to the country. In contrast, similar numbers were leaving the country in the late 1980s.
