Ms Salome Mbugua:

I thank Senator Ivana Bacik. As she will be aware, when we developed the first national action plan on female genital mutilation, no Department took ownership of it and it has been difficult to move matters forward. I named the Department of Education and Skills because its help is needed in moving forward. What is needed to raise awareness further is resources. As I stated, AkiDwA is the only group or organisation trying to reach the health care professionals and those who have either experienced female genital mutilation or supported them. We definitely need resources. We have trained more community ambassadors from the affected communities to reach out to a large number of people around the country. We have asked the Department of Health and the HSE, with which we are working, to help us to come up with a second national action plan in order that the HSE can help us in monitoring what is happening in dealing with the issue of female genital mutilation. In Ireland there are 3,780 women who have endured female genital mutilation and definitely need support.