Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. It will probably be a surprise to most people as they go about their normal lives that no matter where they are in the country, be it in a rural or urban setting, they are probably in close proximity to someone who has been or is experiencing being trafficked. Trafficking does not follow typical patterns or even a stereotype of victims. It is not all about sex trafficking or what occurs in brothels. Its participants are not people who are other to ourselves.

We can all be unwittingly complicit in benefiting from people trafficking in the services we procure for our businesses and homes. While an offer of an organised service at a domestic level may appear to be extremely reasonable, what is the real cost in human suffering? Are the workers working voluntarily? Do they show signs of distress? Are they working long hours? Where do they live? Can they move freely? Are they being disciplined harshly? Are they having fines imposed on them? We have seen cases go through the Workplace Relations Commission in recent years where people have been subject to domestic abuse, trapped in homes, paid a pittance or fined for infractions. We have even had people being made to be pay for the balance of their contract when they have a desire to return home.

Do we as a society inspect or consider the supply chain for our cheap goods, cheap clothes, or the cobalt in our mobile phones? Do we consider the misery that was incurred in our latest acquisition? It is absolutely reasonable and fair that we have a national conversation that slavery should stop. We all have a duty a duty to become sensitised to and aware of the past, our attitudes, our inherent racism and the inbuilt prejudice that we all have.While doing so, we also need a national conversation to challenge the slavery from which we are benefiting today. I refer to the small choices we make in the goods and services we buy. The Seanad is the perfect forum for this conversation and I ask the Deputy Leader to accommodate that in the schedule.