The Labour Party and the country's biggest trade union, Siptu, have disputed the ESRI finding that Irish workers are not being displaced by immigrant labour. Stephen Collins, Political Correspondent, reports.
A Labour spokesman said that the ESRI report was not consistent with the information coming in to TDs and trade union officials.
Siptu in a statement said the ESRI claim was based on "seriously flawed data".
Head of research Manus O'Riordan questioned the CSO earnings data on which the study was based, saying the figures for the construction industry did not include the earnings of new employees in the industry who are being employed by sub-contractors.
The Labour spokesman said that they would need much more information than was provided in the ESRI report to accept that there was not a problem in relation to displacement or the erosion of workers' rights arising from the influx of migrant workers from the new EU members states.
He added that a report from the National Economic and Social Council some months ago had found evidence of illegal and exploitative work practices that were threatening the wages and conditions of Irish workers.
"The latest CSO figures showing an increase of over 8,000 in the number of unemployed is also a worrying factor. We need more information about what is going on in the labour market," he said.
In a report entitled Freedom of Movement for Workers from Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Ireland and Sweden, the ESRI found that there was no significant evidence to date of displacement of Irish workers since the enlargement of the EU two years ago.
However, the report did say that displacement had the potential to become a major issue if social partners and the Government did not agree new measures such as the protection of workers' rights, strengthening of the Labour Inspectorate and the extension of collective agreements. It found that over 200,000 people from former accession countries - half of them from Poland - registered to work here since May 2004.