Claims that EU enlargement would lead to large numbers of migrant eastern European workers undercutting Irish workers' wages have been dismissed as scare tactics.
Representatives of businesses and trade unions have insisted that fears of an influx of workers from new EU member states destabilising the Irish labour market are groundless.
Concerns about the destabilising effect of EU accession on the Irish labour market have been voiced in recent weeks.
This follows the Government's acknowledgement that citizens of 10 accession-candidate states would be allowed to enter Ireland to live and work without work permits or visas immediately upon accession to the EU in two years.
Most other EU governments have reserved the right to restrict the access of such citizens for up to seven years from the date of accession in 2004, due to concerns about distortions of domestic labour markets.
Mr Anthony Coughlan from the National Platform movement claims the Government's arrangement leads to the prospect of large numbers of workers from low wage, high unemployment eastern European countries "drastically under-cutting" Irish workers' wages from "day one" of EU accession.
He said wages in eastern European countries were a third of Irish wages, with unemployment running at 16 per cent in Poland and almost 20 per cent in Slovakia.
Mr Coughlan said the Government had made a "gratuitous extra offer" to workers from accession countries without any public discussion.
There was a "big difference" between workers being able to work in the EU as a whole, including Ireland, and being able to come to Ireland for up to seven years while being prevented from entering other EU member-states, he added.
However, Mr Mike Jennings from SIPTU insisted there was "no reason in the wide world" why Irish workers should worry about EU enlargement.
It was regrettable that unnecessary fears about Ireland being subject to a "flood" of immigrants from candidate EU member-states have been raised in the run up to the debate on the Nice Treaty, he added.
"I deplore the fact that certain people have decided, obviously quite deliberately, to stir up xenophobic emotions in order to score political points," said Mr Jennings, who stressed he was not referring specifically to Mr Coughlan.
Mr Jennings, the union's regional secretary for the midlands and south-east, said only 40 per cent of current work permit-holders in Ireland were from EU accession candidate countries.
In an enlarged EU, they would no longer be "beholden" to employers under the work permit regime and would be less open to being abused and exploited.
Ms Maria Cronin from IBEC said fears of large numbers of workers from new EU member states coming to Ireland were unfounded.
"Most people prefer to stay to live and work in their own countries if they can. The logical conclusion is that accession countries' economies will improve with EU membership and people will be able to work in their own countries," she said.
Mr Coughlan said he was not xenophobic. The issue was a hot potato and there was a systematic attempt being made to make him out as being against immigration, which was rubbish, he added.