Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate my thanks to the Minister for coming here. I know there is much work to be done. I also wish to put on record my acknowledgement of how much she has done in this area. The remarks she just made outlined some of the progress we have made and, as she acknowledged, we still have work to do on that.

The action plan is hugely important, and the raising-awareness component of it. I agree with the Minister that it cannot be about doing it once a year and it has to be a programme that runs on an ongoing basis. It cannot be targeted only at people, for example, as the Minister said, in the hospital or security industry. Members of the public and many people in the hospitality sector and the beauty industry who are dealing with the trafficked people we are talking about would benefit from training and would want to help in that situation. Is there any indication of a timeline of when we might have implementation of all the actions within the action plan? When might we have that public awareness campaign?

I welcome what the Minister said. I have great confidence in the work she is doing in this area and I think it will bear fruit. Do we have a timeframe for when we will get on with that?