Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is very welcome.

Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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The issue I raise today relates to human trafficking and our ability to identify it within Ireland and the need to do so. As we know, it takes different forms. Obviously, there is human trafficking from a sexual exploitation perspective but there is also human trafficking for the purposes of labour and work, which is what we might encounter in our daily lives more commonly. As we go about our daily lives in all kinds of industries where there are customer-facing or public-facing roles, unbeknownst to us, we encounter people who have been trafficked and are working against their will. They are in an invidious situation and they cannot get out of it. While we might encounter those people, very few of us are equipped with the skills we need to identify those people.In the context of this Commencement matter, I ask that the State provide an awareness campaign for people in order that they can properly understand the factors that can identify a person who has been trafficked here for labour purposes or for whatever other purposes. This would allow ordinary people to take the opportunity to avail of training or education or whatever it might be to equip them with the skills needed to spot the signals that can be there when somebody is a trafficked person. Would it not be amazing if a person in an employment scenario or public-facing service role could spot the signals of person having been trafficked when they encounter them? They could then go to the authorities, An Garda Síochána or whoever to inform them of their suspicions in order that the matter could be properly investigated and dealt with. We know that people who are trafficked are not coming to the attention of authorities.

By bringing this to the Seanad today, I am trying to state there is an opportunity here for the Government in circumstances where we know that this is a problem. It is a problem in every country in the world but is an issue the Minister has specifically highlighted. In the past year, we have targeted legislation that deals with this problem, which is welcome. Would it not be wonderful were ordinary people to be equipped with the skills they need to ask themselves whether that person needs help or whether there is a body that can be notified of that person or that person's circumstances in order that the body could help?

I am conscious of the report by IHREC in respect of the actions that we can take. I believe the report contains 30 or 40 pages of actions the State can take in response to human trafficking. Many of them, however, deal with specific agencies and while I certainly welcome provisions of hotlines and reporting mechanisms for people, the reality is that people cannot avail of those mechanisms if they do not know what they are looking for.

I refer to a public awareness campaign or the provision of training for members of the public and, as is called for in the report, those people in particular who are in industries in which they might come in contact. However I am talking more about the public and making available to people, through a public awareness campaign, a set of key factors of which they should be aware, that is, a set of signals and tell-tale signs in their daily lives that could cause them to pause for thought and ask themselves whether they should be saying something to the agencies or An Garda Síochána about a particular person's situation in order that they can investigate and ease that person's situation. Of course, people might be wrong and we have to equip the agencies to do what they should be doing there. But this Commencement matter is about equipping members of the public with the tools they need to spot human trafficking and report it in order that we can all benefit from its eradication.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising such an important issue. This is something that is much more prevalent in our society than most people realise. There are people that we engage with on a daily or weekly or monthly basis who may be victims of trafficking and we are not even aware of it. It is really important that we not only reach out to victims to encourage them to come forward and that is something we are doing in a number of different ways I will outline but also that the general public can spot the signs and understand what it is that they are looking for. Whether they are made aware of those signs through campaigns on TV, radio stations, social media or otherwise, what matters is that they are aware, as this is a hugely exploitative and particularly heinous crime that preys on the most vulnerable people in our society. Those who commit this crime have absolutely no regard for the life of their victim, for their dignity or for any basic human right. It is that which we now acknowledge across Government, the seriousness of this crime and our determination to reach those people who are vulnerable, who need our help and who are affected by it and to take them out of these horrific situations has only increased.

Last year, I published a new action plan to combat human trafficking, reflecting and demonstrating the Government's commitment to preventing this crime and in particular, to ensuring that the victims are identified and supported, both nationally and in co-operation with our international partners. This is of course an issue that is transnational and we need to make sure we are working with our comrades in other European countries and working with Europol and Interpol as well.

The plan itself sets out how the cross-departmental and multiagency work to combat this will be taken forward. It includes the new legislative mechanisms the Senator mentioned, the new national referral mechanism in particular, to make it easier to identify victims. One of the things we have seen, particularly with sexual exploitation, is that women and people in general being exploited in this way are often coming from countries where going to the police was not an option for them. Therefore, they do not naturally come to our Garda.The new national referral mechanism will mean they can now come forward, seek assistance and seek help, be it through the Department of Social Protection, health channels or other mechanisms like the organisations Ruhama, the IOM and others. Part of that, through a number of actions, is making sure that we can highlight it to the general public but also those working in specific areas where we know it is more prevalent – working with the hospitality sector, those at our ports of entry, ports and airports, and security services where people work at security in certain industries and areas where they might be able to spot the signs.

Beyond that, it is about highlighting this to the general public. We have the blue blindfold campaign, which explains and educates the different types of human trafficking that exists and how to recognise the signs. To the Senator’s point, there is an email address and a 24-7 contact line provided on the website, but it is about making people aware of that and making sure it is not something that is highlighted once a year, once a month or on particular days. We are working closely and collaborating with a number of NGOs. We are using specific events, such as the EU anti-human trafficking day and the UN World Day against Trafficking in Persons, to enhance public awareness of trafficking. There will also be development and evaluation of certain campaigns.

On where I would like to get it to, I refer to Coco’s Law, which was passed a number of years ago. When the legislation was enacted, it made it illegal to share intimate images of a person. We put a huge amount of money in and a particular focus on developing awareness-raising campaigns. We see those campaigns on our TV screens, we hear them on radio and we see them on social media. It is not just once a year; it is throughout the year. They have been hugely effective. We have seen the response where people have gone to hotline and we have seen the increase in the number of prosecutions through An Garda Síochána. It has become something that people now see and understand, particularly younger people, who it was impacting. I want us to build up the campaigns until we get to a point where people can see it and, without even knowing it, they are able to spot the signs and perhaps reach out, help a person and encourage them to come forward or go to the Garda. We are not quite there yet, but if we continue to invest and prioritise it in the way we have over the past number of years, we will get to that point.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for being present this morning. It is good to have a member of the Cabinet at the Oireachtas Commencement matters in the Seanad.

I also welcome my good friend, Mr. Ciarán Delaney from Cork, who is in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. He is very welcome back to Leinster House.

Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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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?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The implementation plan is ongoing, and I think this needs to be just part of that ongoing action. The final pieces of the legislation will be enacted before the end of summer. My objective, beyond that, is that we will be able to have a targeted, focused campaign. We have a budget coming up and we have to look at the available resources. However, every year since I have been in the Department, we have made sure that in the funding I have secured there has been funding to raise awareness on specific issues related to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and this feeds into part of that. There is a space where we could work on that. We have been working with other organisations as well and there is a capacity to build up and support those organisations that are working on a daily basis to combat human trafficking, whether it is the IOM or Ruhama. We have done a body of work with Ruhama, investing in it around “We Don’t Buy It”, a specific campaign. It is now partnering with the GAA as well, which I worked with it on, as one of its charities this year, specifically looking at sexual exploitation and how we can educate the general population and encourage people not to exploit women. It is obviously already a crime to procure sex, but we want to highlight that these are vulnerable people and mainly people who have been trafficked.There is much more work that we, as a Government, and that this Department can do to run an annual campaign or to have something there that is consistent and for the general public. There is more we can and will do, working with those organisations to specifically target certain groups of people who we know are particularly vulnerable. I look forward to working with the Senator.