Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, this is where the committee comes in then in terms of the national referral mechanism. Where the committee identifies a person as a victim, that then allows them the opportunity to potentially extend that period. A national referral mechanism will be on a statuary footing and there will be a specific committee, which will encompass An Garda Síochána, State agencies and the NGOs that work with many victims of human trafficking, whose role and responsibility will be to identify whether a person is a victim or not. That will then apply in this instance. As it currently stands, very few, if any, people who come forward are deported even without the national referral mechanism and even on the basis of the fact we have only had two convictions ever for human trafficking. Nobody has been deported. That is not to say it cannot happen but if somebody is clearly identified as a person who is not a victim, that puts a different process in place. For the most part, where victims come forward they are treated in a very dignified way and they are believed in most instances.