Seanad debates

Thursday, 23 May 2013

Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage

 

1:20 pm

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If one is a member of club and does not abide by the rules, there are always consequences and yet there is always the possibility that we will be sanctioned and fined but I am never certain that is the real reason one should do something. The consequences in terms of this are that there will be people who will not have the protection that we can afford them. I means that is where we need to be at. We need to do this urgently. We need to do it to ensure that the people that we are charged with protecting will have that protection. That is the reason we should do it. One should never do something other than for the right reasons.

Of course there are other sanctions. Yes, we have been sanctioned and fined for non-compliance. I am sure that if we did not do this, we would be sanctioned as well. The reason we should do it is to ensure that people have complete protection.

In relation to people with disabilities who are trafficked not in the same numbers but then again in the same proportion as other people, as I said at the last sitting the HSE has to take into consideration the overall needs of the person it is dealing with. If that person has a disability, whether it is physical, intellectual, visual or in the area of mental health, the HSE is obliged to deal with that issue as well. That is taken into account. It is not as if we separate people out. If one such person has been trafficked and has a disability and is in difficult circumstances, where communication is an additional problem, the HSE has to manage that situation.

That is its job. What was the other question?

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