‘Economy will slow without 575,000 migrant workers’

FAILURE to attract 575,000 extra migrants will cost the economy billions over the next decade, FÁS director general Rody Molloy told an Oireachtas committee yesterday.

According to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the 500,000 migrants and returning Irish workers who have come to Ireland since 1997 have raised GNP by up to 3%.

However, addressing the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee yesterday, Mr Molloy warned that failure to attract a further 575,000 migrant workers over the next decade could have the opposite effect on the economy.