The Taoiseach has appealed to employers to hire Irish people who have lost their jobs in recent months before seeking to recruit non-EU workers on permits.
His comments came as the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment confirmed it was carrying out a review of the work permit scheme, which has brought 32,800 overseas workers to the Republic so far this year.
Mr Ahern said he found it an "extraordinary" situation that November had again seen an "enormous" increase in employer demand for permits for workers from non-EU states, at a time when there were major job losses.
"All logic" dictated the numbers should be falling, the Taoiseach said.
"I really would appeal to employers in all instances to take up people who have lost jobs before taking people from elsewhere," he said.
In the Dβil on Tuesday, the Tβnaiste also expressed concern about the continuing demand for the scheme, despite increasing unemployment here.
She said she was considering a role in the process for F┴S, to certify that no Irish person was available for a job vacancy before an employer was allowed to bring in a non-EU worker.
A spokesman for her Department, which handles the applications, confirmed yesterday the scheme was being reviewed internally, and said a result was expected shortly.
It was a "demand-driven scheme," he added, and demand remained high. The 32,800 work permits issued so far this year compares with 18,006 for all of 2000, and 6,215 for 1999.
The Taoiseach was speaking during a tour of the Kerry North constituency in the wake of 84 job losses in the south of the county at the Sara Lee plant. He also met farmer and worker representatives from the Tralee Beef and Lamb processing plant, which closed last month with the loss of almost 100 jobs.
Acknowledging that workers remained scarce in some areas, Mr Ahern said: "In November again we have seen an enormous increase in the number of visas from non-European countries into this country and we are trying to emphasise to employers before they look for worker visas they should look to people who have lost their jobs recently."
He did not accept that the continued search for non-EU workers was simply an issue of demand for skills that were unavailable here.
Ms Harney told a Dβil committee in June that more than a third of work permits last year were issued for people from the EU accession states of Central and Eastern Europe, with Latvia alone accounting for 12 per cent. That trend was continuing in 2001, she added.
Almost three-quarters of work permits last year were for jobs in the service, catering and agricultural sectors, Ms Harney said, figures which suggested "we are now attracting significant numbers of lower-skilled, lower-paid workers into Ireland."
Commenting on the economy generally, Mr Ahern said yesterday the country was not in a recession, "or anything smelling of a recession," but it was in a "slowdown". This would at worst last until 2002 or 2003, he added.