Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The main thing to say is that we must make every effort we can make to protect the lives of people who are vulnerable or endangered by this inhuman practice. We must put our shoulders to the wheel and try to stop, prohibit and hinder this awful practice in every way possible.

All of us were horrified in recent years when we saw the images of articulated trucks having their doors opened, knowing there were multiple deaths inside in those containers - lovely, beautiful human beings, who in the hope of going to a better place, paid to be smuggled from point A to point B and died in insufferable conditions, with heat and no water or food. They were young people, older people and middle-aged people. It is a horrifying thought and a horrifying death. Any proper parliamentarians here, in England or in any part of Europe have to do everything we can to ensure that practice is not possible in the future. We have to be seen to do everything to prevent any person or group of people involved in smuggling, whether it is just for money by organised gangs, who prey in particular on vulnerable young girls and women in any part of Europe or the world to again take them from point A to point B for sexual purposes or any of that type of business. We must do everything we can to make it harder to participate in that and bring those people into this country.

There are significant concerns that the available statistics on human trafficking in Ireland may underestimate the true extent of the problem. The Council of Europe, among others, has pointed out that it is likely that these figures do not reflect the actual scale of human trafficking in Ireland. That is a very worrying thought.

One of the main issues contributing to this underestimation is the persistent limitations of the national referral mechanism and the fact that An Garda Síochána remains the sole authority responsible for identifying victims of trafficking. Various forms of human trafficking remain under-recognised and under-reported. A comprehensive study from 2021 conducted in collaboration with senior academics, An Garda Síochána, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland revealed that the actual number of trafficked victims was likely to be 38% higher than official national statistics. This study considered both probable and possible victims of trafficking in Ireland. It is a horrifying and very sobering thought for any of us to think when we are inside in this Chamber in the capital city of Ireland, Dublin, today, that perhaps not far from where we are in this city there are people inside buildings who are being mistreated, blackguarded, which is the polite way I will put it, for monetary gain. It is a horrifying thought. We are all human beings. There is no one in this world better than anyone else. Everyone is the exact same and it is a sobering thought for all of us if those poor unfortunate people are suffering, and we must do everything we can. I support any endeavour by the Government, or any future government, that would put a stop to this horrible, vile practice and the horrible vile people that are involved in it. They will never have a day's luck for it.

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