Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome to the House the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Deputy Brendan Smith. This is the first occasion on which I, as my party's spokesperson on justice, have had the pleasure to be present when he has addressed the House. I compliment him on the excellent job he has done on his brief to date. Even though I have known the Minister of State for many years, he has surpassed even my expectations. I have come to admire his excellent and succinct observations in the national media. The Minister of State is clear in his thinking and is doing a great job. I compliment him in that regard and I encourage him to keep up the good work.

I welcome the Bill. Estimates indicate that a total of 76 human beings were trafficked into Ireland in the past seven years. One person being trafficked into this country is one too many. We want to nip in the bud such behaviour. Between 20 and 30 years ago, many people emigrated from Ireland. Now, however, as a result of our sustained economic growth and wealth, many people are coming here to work. The cruel, wicked and evil individuals involved in human trafficking see opportunities to enslave women and bring them here. Approximately 80% of all human beings trafficked are either women or children, which is sickening. Ireland must be seen as a nation that does not condone in any way behaviour of this sort.

There are many reasons offered in respect of what causes trafficking. I refer here to the lack of employment opportunities, organised crime, regional imbalances, economic disparities, social discrimination, etc. However, none of these can be given as a justification for trafficking. Traffickers, who are professional criminals, are making huge amounts of money and we are trying to introduce legislation to curtail and stymie their activities. They are employing ever more sophisticated and advanced methods to move people from location to location.

I must be careful about what I say, but I am of the view that the trade of prostitution here is as vibrant as it is in other western European countries. It is regrettable that in many instances eastern European and Russian women are being trafficked into Ireland to become involved in this trade. The authorities must be increasingly vigilant to ensure the exploitation of these individuals is stymied. They should monitor the activities of lap-dancing clubs, etc., and ensure the women employed in such establishments are here of their own volition and are not being exploited or abused.

It has been stated that human trafficking is similar to enslaving people. When drugs such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana are trafficked, they can be used only once. With human trafficking, however, people can be sold on a number of times, which is appalling. When I studied law — it is too long ago to state exactly when I did so — in our first year we were obliged to read a famous book on Roman law by Max Kaser, which I hated. I am sure that when I graduated I burned it along with other books that broke my heart. My recollection is that while slavery was acceptable under Roman law, even slaves had basic rights. As far as I recall, they were allowed to marry, etc. They were exploited, primarily but not exclusively, for the work they could do, namely, housework, farming their owners' lands, providing cheap labour and so on.

Unfortunately, people who are trafficked today have few or no rights and, among other things, are subjected to imprisonment. It is a matter of concern that the value of the international human trafficking trade stands at approximately €10 billion. It is clearly a lucrative trade.

We also think most human beings who are trafficked are used for prostitution and sexual exploitation. Others are used as forced labour. It may not have been a widespread practice but when eastern Europeans came here before the expansion of the EU, there were cases where people would pay them €1 an hour or much less than the minimum rate. It would be foolish of us to say otherwise, although I am thankful it was stamped out. This happened here recently because of the greed of people who were probably making much money. Instead of paying a person €8 or €9, there was exploitation.

The sickest of all exploitation is trafficking for the removal of organs, in many cases from young people. Stealing organs from me when I am past 50 and well worn out probably would be a waste of time. Young people, such as teenagers or even younger, could be trafficked and forced to have their kidneys removed. When a liver or other organ for transplant is to be removed, that trafficked person may even be killed off. That is appalling.

The Minister of State noted in his speech the importance of differentiating between human trafficking and smuggling. Smuggling is deplorable and we have seen appalling instances of people smuggled in containers. There were cases of people dying in the process. The people involved in smuggling are mainly adults who, with free will, enter into a deal with smugglers to get to Ireland or another location. They may indicate they will pay a sum such as €5,000 to get from A to B, so they can have a better lifestyle. Although that is deplorable, it is not as low on the scale as human trafficking.

Figures I came across in research are frightening. It is believed up to 800,000 people may be trafficked internationally every year, with 80% being either women or children. That is an appalling record. I remember considering the matter of children's rights and first-time offenders under legislation introduced in Australia and New Zealand. These countries brought in legislation to deal with young offenders and had a very good template. We have often considered the position in Canada.

In my research I was surprised that in Canada modern sexual slavery was investigated, and a report called Falling Short of the Mark was published. This is an international study of the treatment of human-trafficking victims. The principal author is Benjamin Perrin, who wrote that Canada has ignored calls for reform and continues to re-traumatise trafficking victims with few exceptions by submitting them to routine deportation, and it fails to provide even basic support services.

I urge that this should not happen here. In the event of somebody finding a woman in any part of Ireland who has been enslaved for prostitution through human trafficking, that person should be treated humanely when they are freed from slavery. The worst action to take would be to deport such a person.

This is a fairly recent report, from 2006. We often perceive Canada as being a country well above the mark and a nation that can be admired. According to this report, when somebody is found there who is a victim of trafficking and involved in prostitution, that person is deported to wherever they came from, be it India, Cambodia or Russia. That is appalling treatment.

We should learn from that and in the event of similar situations arising here we should ensure the person is treated humanely and receives counselling and medical treatment. If people are brought here against their will and used for prostitution, for example, perhaps they should be given asylum in order to be educated, trained and given comfort, and more importantly, recognition and compassion. I would be jumping up and down if I thought people — we are mainly talking about females — were being exploited and abused and their only recognition for escaping such slavery was to be deported. They could again be exploited and trafficked.

I picked up on this report because sometimes we can learn from what happens in other countries. Thankfully, we are probably not in the most serious league of international people trafficking. The report gave a "D" grade to the United Kingdom, our neighbours, and Canada received an "F" grade. Ideally, a country would get an "A" grade. We should also recognise that countries such as Australia, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Italy received "B" grades. I wonder where we would end up if graded.

I hope we strive to achieve an "A" grade in this regard. Le cúnamh Dé, that is what we will do with the help of this legislation, among other measures.