The Government's decision to allow workers from eight of the new European Union member-states immediate free access to Ireland's labour market is a reminder that EU enlargement is nearly upon us. It is a welcome move, closely bound up with the continuing demand for immigrant labour in the Irish economy.
Some 40,000 permits were issued last year, 35 per cent of them to workers from these states. That shows the large numbers of people involved - and the importance of ensuring they enjoy proper social protection and employment rights.
Ireland joins Denmark, Greece, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg in allowing immediate access. Other states are still negotiating ahead of the signing of the accession treaties next month; but several more, such as Germany and Austria, will not allow free movement of labour for a number of years, or will exclude certain economic sectors. The Government does not expect there will be any more people applying to come here as a result - and all the research carried out on the question bears out that approach. If there is a dramatic change of circumstances, the Government has reserved the right to alter the regulations.
Ireland's economic development in the last decade has depended critically on the availability of labour, whether from unemployed people here, women coming into the labour force, Irish emigrants returning home or, most recently, a great increase in the number of work permits issued to temporary immigrants from these states and many others around the world.
Ireland has changed radically from an emigrant to an immigrant society over these years and has had to adapt to a new multicultural and multi-ethnic reality. That has been unevenly successful but tremendously stimulating and refreshing for the most part. There is much ground to be made up. Part of this process will be to get to know the new states about to join the EU. They and their people will be Ireland's partners in coming years. We learned more about their cultures during the two Nice referendums, and already there has been a marked increase in economic and political contacts. Opinion surveys show that positive attitudes towards enlargement increased substantially between the two referendums.
There was little evidence that a fear of greater immigration played any prominent role, despite efforts on the No side to provoke such fears. Slovenia and Malta have already voted to join the EU and further referendums are due over the next three months and in September. It will fall to Ireland to welcome the new states formally next year during the Irish EU presidency from January to June.