Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am pleased to have a chance to speak to this Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023. Like previous speakers have said, we did engage with the all-party Oireachtas human dignity group, which had a meeting here. There were presentations from people who really know about this, who work at the coalface. We were shocked at the figures. That is not to say we did not know what was going on, because to a great extent we have known for a long time what has been going on. The fact is that it is vile and pernicious and it could not be called anything else. The Minister has our full support in trying to do anything we can to reduce the extent of the problem.

As Deputy Nolan stated, I am disappointed that our country, which had a good ranking for detection, rejection and an abhorrence of these practices, has badly slipped down the ladder and we have gone into the second tier of defence against this. That is totally reprehensible in the extreme.

I am delighted that two or three years ago, the Department of Justice set up specialised units for sexual crime and violence against women. In Tipperary, there were ten gardaí for each unit and two sergeants. It was totally oversubscribed by members of An Garda Síochána who wanted to go into this area, which they are involved with anyway, but to deal specifically with sexual violence and sexual crimes. That was the case in every other division as well. With the shambles the Government has made of defence and the annoyance of the gardaí, the worry is that we are definitely losing the drugs squad in Tipperary and community policing. I am told that these units are safeguarded and will not be touched but I wonder. The traffic corps has been devastated by a Minister and the Minister will not listen to anybody. I will not even talk about the Commissioner today. There is a huge amount of exploitation and it is going on in many countries.

We talk about Ukraine at the moment. There is sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. They are also killed and their organs are harvested. That is going on and it is a massive industry. We are here jumping up and down in support of Ukraine but there is an awful lot of baggage in that country, and anywhere sexual crime and trafficking and exploitation of children comes from.

We are gone green and we want green electricity but we have turned a blind eye, súile dúnta, to the savage exploitation of minors, children as young as eight, slaving for hours mining lithium with hammers and chisels. It is lovely to go green and we all want to go electric. We want to be the cheerleaders against climate change and everything else but we are ignoring that basic, disgusting, degrading slave trade. When we treat children like that it is only a step away then to exploit and traffic them for sexual exploitation. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae spoke about the containers and the horrific stories in that regard.

We know it is going on in every city and town in this country, and maybe rural areas as well. It is a massive issue. As a parent and grandparent, it is horrific. There could not be more heinous crimes.

Mention was made of how some defence counsels use certain items on display. That is reprehensible, but everybody is entitled to a defence. Measures have to be taken to stop that. I hope the Bill will be robust, strong and specific enough to deal with those areas. We can bring in all of this legislation, but we cannot turn a blind eye forever to the slave labour that is mining lithium batteries for our lovely electric cars.

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