Madam, - The Government's decision to deny Bulgarian and Romanian citizens access to the Irish labour market after their countries enter the European Union on January 1st is no surprise. It is a a cogent manifestation of so-called "enlargement fatigue", itself an expression of Europe's current flirtation with introspection and fear.
But the decision seems to have no basis in economic logic. Both Bulgaria and Romania have made tremendous strides in recent years with growth rates reaching Celtic Tiger levels in each year after 2001. Bulgaria has reduced its unemployment rate from above 20 per cent five years ago to a current rate of under 9 per cent. Romania's unemployment rate is also well below 10 per cent.
With record levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pouring into both countries, the economic landscape is encouraging. Therefore Bulgarians and Romanians have far less incentive to emigrate than they had a decade ago.
Moreover, it is clear that Ireland has benefited enormously from the Government's decision to open the labour market to citizens from new member-states back in 2004. They have contributed tax and social security payments, helped satisfy the huge demand for domestic labour, rented the second and third properties of Irish citizens - and all in a context where they have been denied access to welfare benefits. After more than two years our unemployment rate remains at a historic low of around 4.5 per cent, effectively constituting full employment. So where is the problem?
What the Government will not admit is that this decision has been determined largely by British policy. It is no coincidence that the announcement from Micheál Martin, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, follows the declaration by British home secretary John Reid that the UK's doors would remain closed to Bulgarian and Romanian workers. After a systematic campaign of misrepresentation and outright xenophobia by Britain's tabloid and right-wing press the UK government caved in and put up the shutters. It is shameful that Ireland's labour market policies are now effectively being dictated by the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. What sort of republic is that? - Yours, etc.
Dr JOHN O'BRENNAN,
Lecturer, European Politics,
University of Limerick.
Madam, - Your front page of October 25th illustrates in stark terms how the EU is developing. The main headline tells us that "Martin says worker ban on new EU states is justified", while colour advertisement nearby promotes a forthcoming overseas property exhibition offering properties in Bulgaria and Romania, among other countries, for "as little as £15,000".
Entry for Irish speculators to this exhibition is free but entrance to to Ireland for workers from these countries is restricted.
The EU is in danger of losing its vision of equality of treatment for all its citizens. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Swords,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Despite the tough talk from MicheálMartin about work permits,an EU passport holder is free to travel to any other European country under the EU's Freedom of Movement directive.
So talk of imposing restrictions is just that - talk. And while Irish politicians fret over deckchair arrangements our closest neighbours appear to have struck an iceberg.
There is a growing realisation in the UK that since the doors were flung open in 2004, the economy has enjoyed a short-term boost - but at the expense of increased demands for healthcare, housing, education and depressed wage levels. It was initially estimated that 13,000 migrants would arrive from Eastern Europe; Home Office figures suggest 600,000 is closer to the truth.
With creaking hospitals, housing shortages and school classrooms bursting at the seams it has become apparent that the fiscal arguments in favour of this influx no longer add up. All this and 7.8 million Britons "economically inactive": if the low-paid work you used to do now pays even less, than why bother working at all?
In a broader context, it has become clear that the multicultural project has failed. Many immigrants in the UK live in self-imposed segregation, notably British Muslims. But at least an honest public discourse has begun on how this fractured society can be fixed.
Across Europe governments struggle with the corrosive effects of an ideology that, in its foolish insistence that modern man had outgrown the fundamental need to identify with others of his own tribe, placed no value on culture at all. Entire suburbs of Rotterdam, Paris, Hamburg and Stockholm have become ethnic cantons whose inhabitants feel no affinity with the country they grew up in.
Here in Ireland, however, our own establishment remains stubbornly in denial.The Irish need to ask themselves a question, urgently. Does this country, our ancestral homeland, possess a distinct national identity, culture and social history that is worth preserving? Or is Ireland merely a small and disposable cog in a global economic machine? - Yours, etc,
PHILIP DONNELLY,
Donadea,
Naas,
Co. Kildare.