Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I thank him for his speech, even if I cannot fully accept his analysis. There is no doubt that these are exciting times for Ireland. The CSO reports that the population of this little country has breached the 4 million mark, standing at 4.13 million people. Following the Famine and the relentless flight of young people from our shores in the proceeding century and a half, we can finally look to inward migration as a sign that the hard and painful economic reforms put in place by successive Governments have worked. We are richer, more confident, outward looking and self assured, yet there remain a series of key challenges to which we are simply not facing up. Unless we start identifying problems, coming up with solutions and implementing those solutions, we await a world of pain in the coming years.

According to the Forfás expert group on future skills needs, the list of professions facing a skills shortage is staggeringly long. It includes bricklayers, plasterers, carpenters, floorers, painters and decorators, accountants, actuaries, financial analysts, investment and risk analysts, fund managers, engineers, welders, computer analysts, chemical engineers, doctors, dentists, dieticians, radiographers, nurses, social workers, HGV drivers, sales staff, chefs, credit controllers, security guards, waiters and waitresses, warehousemen and women and care assistants. As the economy grows, so too will the need for these jobs. It is a worrying prospect that if we are having difficulties at this stage, we are facing much greater difficulties into the future.

The Employment Permits Bill 2005, while welcome, does not go far enough to alleviate these shortages. The Minister has failed to explain adequately why he has decided to retain the current system of granting permits to employers rather than employees. He has also failed to explain why he has not bothered even to refer to the issues of family re-unification and of the employee holding his or her own permit. There are 137,000 migrant workers in Ireland representing 7% of the labour force. Over the period 2000-05, over 100,000 persons from outside the EEA came to Ireland for employment purposes. This is in addition to the substantial numbers of EEA nationals, with estimates of over 90,000 having applied for PPS numbers since 1 May 2004. We do not have the legislative infrastructure to maintain that situation and the new Bill, unless it is amended along the lines we have proposed, will not solve the problem.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has pointed out that we have developed and are perpetuating a two-tier system of migrant workers. On the one hand, we have those on work visas who are generally in better jobs with their families by their side, who are better paid and valued by the State. On the other hand, there are individuals with no families, who are lower paid and not here in their own right, but rather in the gift of their employers. This is ridiculous. The Minister talks about a green card system, but it is nothing of the sort. A green card system gives the individual the right to search for work, apply for residency and aspire to citizenship. The Minister has shown scant regard for any of those things. I remind the Minister that Forfás states baldly: "While the EU and EEA counties will provide a substantial proportion of Ireland's low-skill requirements, continued non-EEA immigration will be needed to meet some of Ireland's high skill demands over the next number of years".

We have a duty to protect those who are keeping this country going, yet we witness the Polish edition of Newsweek reporting that Ireland was a "living hell" for many Poles, who arrived expecting to be able to pick and choose jobs and instead found themselves sleeping rough and living on charity. The Polish Embassy has suggested that around 10,000 Poles living in this country are experiencing difficulty. In my own town of Killarney, the local population, council and the churches have extended a warm welcome to the Poles and have organised some social integration. There is a Polish mass once a month in St. Mary's Cathedral and a social interchange among the Polish community in Killarney, which is very welcome. Nevertheless, there have been shocking reports of exploitation in Gama, Irish Ferries and elsewhere while the Government reacts to events rather than shaping them, typified by its announcement of an extra few staff members for the labour inspectorate after the event.

Ireland is new to inward migration. We have the almost unique opportunity to avoid the pitfalls of the US and the UK, where an enormous underclass of immigrants and their children has developed. In these countries, an entire generation of children has grown up knowing nothing but social deprivation and poverty. The link is made to the fact that they are of foreign parents, and their situation is often linked to the colour of their skin or their religion. As a result, an almost ingrained distrust of the institutions of state, including the police, becomes the norm. As with all communities suffering poverty, crime can become rife. The misconception that immigrant communities are inherently more crime ridden than the native born population begins to find favour. All of this will happen here if we do not, at this early stage, wage war on any trend towards the ghettoisation of immigrant communities, be it in the geographical or economic sense.

We must ensure that we manage immigration as part of a comprehensive policy and view it as a social phenomenon and not merely an economic one. The Government needs to develop a policy to stamp out racism, promote multiculturalism in schools, consider hate crime legislation, examine the extension of citizenship, eliminate abuse of the system and prepare us for the huge increase in population that we inevitably face in the years to come. It is crucially important that people who come to our shores to gain employment must be integrated as part of society, to head off the race problems that occur in other jurisdictions. This will not happen by accident and the education system will have to play a role in ensuring people are tolerant of migrants.

Figures in the quarterly national household survey paint a rosy picture overall, but there are some worrying trends. The number of people classified as unemployed has risen, while those employed in both agriculture and manufacturing continues to decline. An action plan for both these sectors of the economy is vital. As an economy or a society, we cannot exist within the service sector. We must do what we can to maintain a manufacturing base because it is the key to spin-off development of ancillary services and industries. We must not allow the flight from the land to continue unabated. We must find roles for people in agriculture or on the land to play in the development of rural communities. We cannot leave the people employed in those sectors to the vagaries of globalisation.

The competitiveness agenda has been allowed to slip. We were fourth in the OECD world competitiveness forum ranking in 2000. We are now 26th which is evidence we have slipped. It has been recognised in numerous studies that there is a competition deficit in this country. Across key sectors of the economy, including many directly controlled by the State, there is an absence of a competitive dynamic which would provide consumers of services with a sufficiently wide choice.

Approximately half the workforce is not in a pension scheme and I am sure the Minister of State would agree this is a serious challenge. Figures from the Irish Association of Pension Funds show the average contribution to pension schemes is 10%. However, to maintain an adequate income on retirement, the figures should be between 15% and 25%. The Government is discussing this issue and I expect it will have a statement to make on it in the context of the forthcoming budget. This is an issue for which we must definitely plan ahead.

Yesterday I read that Mr. Robbie Kelleher, the chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers, pointed out that the Minister for Finance will have a €2 billion net giveaway in his December budget, and I have no doubt he is correct given his authority on the subject. That allows plenty of room for manoeuvre. Given that half the workforce is not in a pension scheme and so many who are pay in so little, there is much to make up in that regard. The Leader is on record as favouring a splurge when the special savings incentive scheme accounts mature. That will not do the economy much good, or perhaps it will. Views are divided on that issue. It is important incentives are provided in respect of pensions because we are all lecturing each other about the shortage of pensions. This is a great opportunity for the Minister for Finance to do something good and concrete about it, which I would encourage.