Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputies Creighton and Naughten for sharing time. Most people who listened to the debate last night and this evening will have heard many speakers from the Government side making the point that the Government has taken a firm stand against trafficking in human beings by putting in place a wide range of legislative and administrative measures in respect of prevention, protection and prosecution. Both the Minister of State tonight and his senior Minister last night have taken issue with the fact that the State is doing little to tackle this most serious human rights issue and the measures being taken are not the correct ones. It has been stated that the unit that has been established includes more than 50 Government, non-governmental, national and international agencies to co-ordinate a comprehensive holistic, whole Government response to the issue of trafficking. When tackling a problem, would a child in the country choose to co-ordinate together 50 units to get a response to a serious issue? The fact that so many agencies are involved indicates this is merely paying lip-service to a serious problem.

The Minister of State should take up one issue this evening. I refer to the ease with which one can advertise the number and availability of adult entertainment establishments, such as lap dance clubs in local newspapers, some national newspapers and glossy magazines. Such businesses are fuelling demand for sex workers and therefore, indirectly, for sex trafficking. Therefore, it is important that the Government should take a stand on a simple issue by calling in the editors of all these magazines, which are clearly identifiable, to ask them once and for all to stop this commercial activity of advertising through their media. While this is a small issue, with the greatest of respect it could be far more effective than much of the work of the 50 other agencies that are meant to be co-ordinating an effort to eliminate or reduce human trafficking at present.

I will provide an example that horrified me today. I refer to statistics from the Escort Ireland website's Irish escort review, which stated there were 15,169 Irish escort reviews, or field reports, currently available on Escort Ireland. The encounters involved cost the Irish clients a total of €4,282,000 per annum and the average cost to the Irish client per encounter cost €282.

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