Rabbitte must spell out where he stands on immigrant work permits

IT appears that immigration and its impact on the Irish labour market is set to be as big an issue in the first months of 2006 as it was in the last months of 2005.

For this the Labour leader Pat Rabbitte is in large part responsible.

In new year interviews he suggested that Ireland might have to introduce work permits for workers from the newer EU member countries. He talked, in concerned tones, about how Ireland was one of only three of the existing member states to allow workers from new member countries unlimited access to our labour market, and he used phrases like “there are 40 million people in Poland after all”.