Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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54. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of National Employment Rights Authority inspectors who have been given training in human trafficking. [14363/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body which was established on 1st October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. It assumed the roles and functions previously carried out by the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), Equality Tribunal (ET), Labour Relations Commission (LRC), Rights Commissioners Service (RCS), and the first instance (Complaints and Referrals) functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT).

Inspection and Enforcement Services within the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) undertake inspection of employment records to ensure employers’ compliance with employment law in the State. The objective is to verify employer compliance with the relevant employment law and if necessary, to enforce compliance with the law.

While the WRC has no statutory functions or responsibilities in relation to human trafficking it is a partner in the State’s response to Trafficking in Human Beings (THB). As potential to detect indicators of THB may arise as part of its workplace inspection role, where this arises, the WRC Inspection and Enforcement Services will refer the matter to An Garda Siochána as potential human trafficking cases..

The entire current cadre of 63 inspectors (which includes 8 Inspection Team Managers) have received training in the identification of indicators of human trafficking. Additional training will be provided on an ongoing basis, as required.