Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I extend a warm welcome to the witnesses before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. In common with my colleagues, I thought their presentation was absolutely excellent. It contains a lot of detail and many new ideas and as my colleagues have noted, the joint committee will be bringing forward some of these ideas to deal with and react to the issue of human trafficking. As for the new creative stuff, I loved the idea of the wristbands, which I thought was a great idea. I also liked how the students mentioned the storybook for younger children, the CD and the involvement of Soul Waves media productions, as well as how they have written a drama on human trafficking.

I refer to a problem the students will have seen from their own research, in that when they asked their own classmates, only 14% of them knew about the issue, in comparison with a figure of 42% for adults. The issue on which the witnesses have shone a light is the necessity to find other ways to bring people along and to educate them. The students have given the joint committee ideas in this respect, of which adults of necessity would not think. While they might think to mount an exhibition or something like that, the students have provided five or six highly constructive ideas and I reiterate the need to get out there in this regard.

I have a couple of questions, if that is all right? When the students were carrying out this project, what was the reaction of their peers, namely, their own classmates in school to it?