Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has said it is time for Ireland take stock of its immigration policy and focus on the "integration challenge" associated with workers already in the country.
Mr Martin made the comments while explaining the decision not to allow Bulgarian and Romanian workers come to Ireland without permits following their accession to the EU next January.
"The flow continues in terms of the existing 10 member states but also given the scale of it . . . well over 250,000 PPN numbers issued since [2004] . . . clearly we need to take stock and focus on the integration challenge," Mr Martin told RTÉ's News at One.
He said the integration challenge included providing proper housing, education and healthcare to all residents.
Mr Martin said the decision to allow workers from the 10 accession states who joined the EU in 2004 to work freely in Ireland was the right one.
"Clearly the decision in May 2004 facilitated the dramatic increase in employment, where up to 90,000 were employed in 2005 and a similar figure in 2006," he said.
But he said that given the massive change in the make-up of the Irish workforce in recent years, it was now time to take stock.
"We now estimate that 10 per cent of the workforce is made up of foreign nationals coming here from a variety of locations across the globe.
"We've achieved that almost from a standing still position in the late 90s. I'd remind you that back in 1999 we only issued 5,000 work permits, so you get a sense of the enormity of the scale and the pace of that change," Mr Martin said.
"Other countries took nearly 30 years to achieve the same percentage level of the workforce."
"We would argue that Ireland has more than done its bit in terms of supporting the concept of supporting mobility of workers across Europe and can't be held to account on that score."
In 2005, 570 work permits were issued to nationals of Bulgaria and 1,840 to Romanian nationals. Following their accession, workers from these countries will be given preference over non-EU citizens.
Earlier today, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte called for "severe restrictions" on access to the Irish labour market for Bulgarian and Romanian workers.
"The poor labour market regulation in this country means that large scale in-migration has given rise to exploitation of migrant workers, displacement, and lower wages for some Irish workers," Mr Rabbitte said.
"Projections on the number of migrants from the ten new member states that joined the EU in 2004 were out by a mile. Given the unwillingness of other member states to open their borders, and particularly in light of the attitude being taken by the UK, Ireland cannot at this point adopt the same attitude to Bulgaria and Romania as it did to the ten accession states in 2004," he said.
Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell said today Ireland would have no option but to follow Britain's lead and impose restrictions.
"The reality is that as long as there is a common travel area between Ireland and the UK if a regulation is made in the UK it will have to be applied in Ireland," he said.
Business group Chambers Ireland has expressed disappointment at the Government's decision but said it was a necessary measure to preserve the common travel area between Ireland and the United Kingdom.