The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, indicated yesterday that Ireland will have to protect its welfare and social benefit systems against possible abuse after the European Union enlarges on May 1st. Speaking after the announcement by the British Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, that migrant workers there will not be able to claim such benefits for at least two years, Mr Ahern's statement reflects the need to protect the existing bilateral free travel arrangements between the UK and Ireland.
These impose mutual obligations in dealing with third party movements of workers.
In neither case is it proposed to restrict the right of workers in the enlarged EU to travel freely in search of work. At present tens of thousands of people from central and eastern Europe are working productively in this State. After May 1st it is estimated that some 70 per cent of Ireland's migrant labour needs will continue to be met from there, reflecting the relatively buoyant labour market here. It is important to keep this channel open for sound economic as well as humanitarian reasons. But it is reasonable to protect welfare systems from potential abuse and to safeguard existing labour mobility rights between Ireland and the UK.
Migration is a highly contentious subject ideologically and politically. Controversies about its effects on host societies are often conducted in ignorance of the real benefits involved and the propensity to emigrate. In Britain fears about an overwhelming number of people arriving from central and eastern Europe after EU enlargement have been whipped up by right-wing media and panicked ministerial consideration of the issue. In fact such people have found work relatively easily, as they have in Ireland. The money they send home benefits their families more than aid flows. Exhaustive research in central and eastern Europe shows there is no large-scale intention to migrate after the EU enlarges, even within the new member-states themselves.
Restrictions imposed by most of the existing member-states reflect comparatively high unemployment in their own labour markets and often irrational fears, especially in border areas, about mass movements of peoples. Thus Germany, Italy and Austria are restricting access to their labour markets for seven years. Countries such as Sweden and The Netherlands have decided to impose similar restrictions on access to welfare as those announced yesterday by Mr Blunkett.
Mr Blunkett's measures will require migrant workers from the new member-states to register when they arrive in the UK rather than impose a highly restrictive work permit scheme. But those coming will not be able to claim social welfare for at least two years. Evidence that members of the Romany Gypsy minorities hope to do so in large numbers is thin on the ground; but that is the subliminal message of Mr Blunkett's announcement, and was the substantive issue raised by the recent media campaign on the issue.