A dispute has broken out between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the leading anti-Nice Treaty campaigner, Mr Anthony Coughlan, over commitments made by the Government to permit immediate freedom of movement into Ireland from the new EU member-states following enlargement.
Mr Coughlan, on behalf of the National Platform, has accused the Government of making an "irresponsible commitment" by agreeing that, once the EU was enlarged to include the 10 applicant countries, their citizens would, in his words, "all be free to live and work in Ireland from day one of their EU accession".
He continued: "This irresponsible commitment by the Government significantly changes the argument about EU enlargement. It means that the Government has agreed to bear the costs of potentially heavy East European migration to Ireland from January 2004, the most likely date for the coming into force of the accession treaties, without any debate in the Dáil, consultation with the public, or consultation with the UK government, which could be significantly affected by this Irish Government commitment."
Most other EU member-states have set transition periods of up to seven years for the free movement of people.
"The Irish people will warmheartedly welcome citizens from the EU applicant countries on the same plane of equality as all the other member-states and on the basis of the provisions of the accession treaties. But what the Government has committed us to is an extraordinary extra burden of responsibility," Mr Coughlan said.
Responding, the Department of Foreign Affairs last night stated: "Ireland believes that freedom of movement within the EU is a fundamental principle of the Union. This view is shared by our partners. While transitional arrangements will apply in some cases, these are for a limited period only."
The Department pointed out that Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden had taken the same stance as Ireland. Out of 20,000 work permits issued so far this year, 7,045 had gone to nationals of countries which had applied for EU membership, and this was the same proportion as last year. Some 2,728 were renewals of existing permits.
In his statement, Mr Coughlan alluded to a letter last March from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to his party colleague, Mr Tom Kitt (quoted in yesterday's Irish Times), stating that he had informed the foreign ministers of the candidate countries about the Irish decision. Mr Cowen wrote to the candidate countries after the Nice referendum was defeated in June last year.
"Ireland took the decision to allow the citizens of new EU member-states full and free access to live and work here from the first day of accession," Mr Cowen told Mr Kitt.
The 10 candidate countries likely to join at the end of next year are: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus. These have a combined population of some 75 million people.
Meanwhile, the Green Party TD Mr John Gormley has criticised comments by the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi.
"[Mr Prodi] is reported to have stated that Irish voters will stop the European Union's eastward expansion in its tracks if they again say no to a treaty enabling the 15-nation bloc to accept newcomers starting in 2004.
"Clearly Mr Prodi has come under pressure from others in the Commission to row back on his previous statement, which has been used very effectively by the No side. In that statement, Mr Prodi made it clear that the Nice Treaty was politically desirable, though not legally necessary."