The Labour leader is wrong on two counts: on immigration and the impact of the EU services directive, writes Tom Parlon
This week in an Irish Times interview Pat Rabbitte stated: "The time may be coming when we will have to sit down and examine whether we would have to look at whether a work permits regime ought to be implemented in terms of some of this non-national labour, even for countries in the European Union."
He went on to explain that this view was the result of anecdotal evidence of the displacement of Irish workers by immigrant labour. Frankly, his comments show questionable political judgment, little or no grasp of economics and wilful ignorance of European law. There's little doubt that he decided to take this approach in the wake of the recent Irish Ferries controversy.
A huge number of people in Ireland were rightly concerned about the fate of the Irish Ferries workers. But in trying to harness and boost those fears with his recent comments, Pat Rabbitte was doing a huge disservice to Irish politics and indeed the European idea, which as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin observed on Thursday, is based on the idea of open borders within the Union.
Ireland's unemployment rate is 4.3 per cent, which is in effect full employment. If Irish workers are being displaced, where are they? They are certainly not on the dole queue. The truth is that there are more jobs available in this country than we can cope with and immigration is a response to that problem.
A recent letter in The Irish Times from someone working in the hospitality industry pointed out the difficulty of filling middle management positions, and caused the writer to wonder, "if there is a legion of Irish people seeking jobs in the hotel and catering sector? If so, could he [ Pat Rabbitte] send me their details?"
The truth is not that Irish workers are being displaced but that, given the range of career opportunities now available to Irish people, they are choosing not to work in certain industries. Bluntly, immigrants are doing the jobs Irish people are not available to do.
It is also instructive to look at our own experience of emigration in the 20th century. When there was mass unemployment in Ireland huge numbers emigrated; as soon as the economy improved, huge numbers returned to Ireland. I have no doubt that as the economies of the accession states improve many of our current immigrants will return to their homelands. In the meantime the Irish economy and the Irish people are the beneficiaries of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of the young people who have come to Ireland.
At its core the European Union is designed to allow the free movement of people, capital, goods and services. We have benefited greatly from this freedom of movement. Are we now to seek to limit the rights of others to benefit from the four freedoms which underpin the European idea?
Pat Rabbitte is not just wrong about immigration - he is also wrong on the impact of the services directive. Contrary to what he says, the services directive does not allow an agency "to employ the workers here at domestic rates in Poland or Latvia". Under European law any company transferring staff to another country within the EU must comply fully with the labour and employment standards of the host country.
There are some in Irish society who fear the advent of immigration to this country, but political leaders have a duty, as Abraham Lincoln observed, to lead as well as to heed public opinion. Pandering to public fears, particularly to irrational fears, is not the mark of a leader. To seek to deny job opportunities to young people on the basis of irrational fears is not simply an abdication of leadership but abandonment of common decency.
I would have expected more of a Labour Party leader.
That is not to say that the advent of immigration will not bring challenges. It will, and I believe that Government must act (and indeed is acting) to meet these challenges. We need, as Archbishop Martin, said to "avoid the creation, or simply the emergence in our society, of ghettoes of ethnic groups who are disadvantaged and frustrated". We need to put in place the mechanisms to encourage the integration of immigrants into not only the economy, but the social and cultural life of the State. That is the real challenge of immigration, not the mythical displacement of Irish workers. We have enough to do to meet the real challenges without inventing imaginary ones. Or do we wish to be in the unique position of scapegoating people for a problem that never existed?
In the first half of the 19th century in the US the not inappropriately named Know-Nothings campaigned against Irish immigration to that country, and predicted that all kinds of calamities would occur if immigration was not controlled. I must admit to being somewhat saddened that the Labour Party has chosen to take on their mantle.
Tom Parlon is Minister of State at the Department of Finance (with special responsibility for the Office for Public Works)