Immigration cannot continue at current rates, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has suggested.
Mr Ó Cuív said Ireland had gone from a position where its population was virtually all home-born to having 10 per cent of its inhabitants foreign-born. This had occurred rapidly in a population of four million people.
We now needed to look at what was sustainable in terms of immigration, he said. Ireland had kept the door open to labour migration more than neighbours such as France or Germany but there was an issue now of how many people we could absorb at any one time.
If immigration were to double it would cause "one million and one" problems, not just racial but also to do with infrastructure.
To make the most of our new diversity, it was vital for Ireland to learn from best practice internationally and seek to avoid the mistakes made elsewhere. "We have a unique opportunity to get it right in Ireland. Considerable progress has been made in a short timeframe. There is much to celebrate and much left to be done."
Integration could not be imposed from above; the Government could give direction and put supports in place, but at the end of the day communities themselves had to work towards integration and against racism, he said.
On the question of granting permanent status to labour migrants, the Minister said this was a complex issue. He pointed out that when Irish families emigrate to the US and their children return to attend third level here, they had to pay fees. He often received complaints about this, but had to explain that if these students were given free fees, it would have to be given to all students from outside the EU.
Mr Ó Cuív was addressing a meeting of community workers held in preparation for the EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008.
