Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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174. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of reports of human trafficking received by gardaí in each of the past ten years; the number of persons charged with human trafficking offences in the same time period; the number of persons convicted of human trafficking offences in the same time period; and the number of ongoing criminal or legal cases which relate to suspected human trafficking (details supplied). [18461/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Human trafficking is a particularly heinous crime, based on deception and exploitation of vulnerable people.

This Government is serious about preventing and prosecuting for human trafficking. We are confident that the victim-centred policy approach we are taking will encourage more victims to come forward which will, in turn, strengthen prosecutions and convictions.

There are two areas of progress in particular that I wish to highlight.

The first is the approval by Government to revise the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and to place it on a statutory footing.

The NRM provides a way for all agencies, both State and civil society, to co-operate, share information about potential victims, identify those victims and facilitate their access to advice, accommodation and support.

Currently, when suspected victims of human trafficking are encountered by, or referred to, An Garda Síochána they are provided with a wide range of services by both the Government and NGOs through the NRM. It is widely accepted that having the Gardaí as the sole competent authority for the formal recognition of people as victims of human trafficking is not the optimal system.

The new approach acknowledges other state bodies and NGOs have a role in identifying victims of human trafficking and referring them to the NRM.

We want to be sure that every victim of trafficking is identified and helped so we can support them. Doing this will also help us gather more information and evidence in order to bring to justice the traffickers who prey on vulnerable people with no regard for the lives and safety of their victims.

I also want to note the development of a new National Action Plan on human trafficking. A consultant has produced a short and focused analysis of the current position in relation to human trafficking in Ireland. The analysis includes a research review, a synopsis of the extent of trafficking in Ireland and a summary of issues to address.

My Department is now engaged with a working group to draft the new National Action Plan high-level goals and outcomes. Work is progressing with the aim to have a plan approved by Government by the end of May.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that a search of the PULSE database was conducted on 4 April 2022 to identify any charge created since 1 January 2010 whereby an offence contrary to either the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act, 2000 or the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act, 2008 was referenced. The total number of unique charges created since 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2021 per legislative act is as follows:

I am further advised that in addition to the above, there were 377 incidents of Human Trafficking Offences reported and investigated which either remain under investigation or in which charges under other legislation have been created to date. These include:

1. Any incident of PULSE category “Human Trafficking” which includes the following types:

- Labour Exploitation - Person Other Than A Child

- Sexual Exploitation - Person Other Than A Child

- Labour Exploitation Of A Child

- Sexual Exploitation Of A Child

- Soliciting or Importuning for Prostitution

- Other Offences

2. Any incident of PULSE category ‘Miscellaneous’ and of type ‘Human Trafficking Offences’

Information provided is taken from PULSE as of 4 April 2022 and is operational and may be liable to change. Crime counting rules have been applied to the incident count.

The Courts Service has provided me with the following statistics on the number of persons and number of offences before the courts/sent forward for trial and where convictions were recorded in the District Court from Jan 2010 to 28 February 2022. I am advised that It is not possible to provide statistics back 10 years in the short time provided.

Note 1:Many of those offences have been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Court. At this time, the system in use by the Courts Service in the Circuit Courts is ("ICMS") a lotus notes database and cannot produce reports for specific offences. The only reports which are available are by offence category rather than for individual offences and categories of offences can contain multiple offences.

Note 2:Courts can only provide data in relation to where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.