Support groups for immigrants last night expressed disappointment at the Government's decision to introduce social welfare restrictions based on a "habitual residence" test for people coming to work and live in the State.
Ms Hilkka Becker, a legal consultant with the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said the body believed the restrictions announced by the Minister may even be illegal.
"We are very disappointed. We would have hoped Ireland would have taken an independent stance from Britain, and that the Minister would have followed her initial reaction three weeks ago, which was to say that Ireland's social welfare system already had sufficient safeguards to prevent abuse," she said.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland believed the new rules would "probably not serve the State's economic interests" because it would become very difficult for workers to come here, even to work in sectors where they were badly needed.
"We have not been able to fully assess it yet, but it seems this might be in breach of EU legislation. When you give access to the labour market, you can't then deny access to the welfare system. You can't have it both ways," Ms Becker said.
Ms Nuala Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Migrant Rights Centre, also expressed disappointment. "We had hoped Ireland would take some leadership on this. There is no real evidence that people move here to live off social welfare assistance," she said.
"On the evidence we see, most people are very anxious to work, and we have often had to persuade them to claim even what they are entitled to."
None of the bodies was prepared to estimate how many immigrants might be affected.
The residency test will apply to unemployment assistance, non-contributory old age pensions, widows' and orphans' non-contributory pensions, single-parent family allowances, the carer's allowance, disability allowance and supplementary welfare allowance.
It will not apply to social-insurance-based payments such as disability benefit and retirement pensions where entitlement is gained by the payment of social-insurance contributions.
The maximum personal rate for unemployment assistance is €134.80. Child benefit, from next month, will be paid at a rate of €131.60 per month for the first and second child, and €165.30 for third and subsequent children.