Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Mar 2007

Vol. 633 No. 3

Adjournment Debate.

Ambulance Service.

Mr. Healy

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for this opportunity to raise this issue once again. I am calling for the putting in place of an emergency ambulance service for Carrick-on-Suir. I have lost count of the number of times I have raised this issue during the course of this Dáil with the current Minister and her predecessors. I appeal to the Minister to at last approve what would be a life-saving service for the people of Carrick-on-Suir and surrounding areas.

This issues unifies all the people of the town, its public representatives and political parties. Everybody in the area has supported the call for a service for quite a number of years. Even at this late hour, the Minister and the HSE could approve the location of an emergency ambulance service to cover the town.

Carrick-on-Suir has approximately 5,000 people, with quite a hinterland into north Waterford, north-east Tipperary and parts of Kilkenny. It is very poorly served, if at all, by the emergency ambulance service. Neither the service operating from Waterford nor that operating from South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel can meet acceptable response times in the Carrick-on-Suir area. That puts lives at risk, particularly in cases of road traffic accidents and heart attacks, and has done so for a number of years.

I hope the Minister of State will not tell me there will be another survey or review, or that this issue is subject to extensive discussions, etc. We have heard all that before. All local people, including politicians of all parties and the Minister of State's colleagues, and Health Service Executive officials accept the need for this emergency ambulance service for Carrick-on-Suir. It should be delivered.

We all acknowledge and compliment those involved in the community defibrillator programme in Carrick-on-Suir and throughout the country, as well as first responders. We thank these people for their invaluable work and hope more will come on board to train for these programmes. The Minister of State should not indicate that these programmes are a substitute for a proper emergency ambulance service for Carrick-on-Suir, however. They were never meant to be such and do not substitute for a properly staffed and resourced service with emergency medical technicians and paramedic staff. That is the service we are looking for in the town.

St. Brigid's Hospital is excellent and there is a health centre in the town with extensive grounds. The location of the hospital and health centre would be ideal for the emergency ambulance station. I ask the Minister of State to approve this life-saving service for the people of Carrick-on-Suir at the 11th hour, as we have been united on the matter for many years.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food (Mr. B. Smith)

I am taking this Adjournment debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I will ensure that Deputy Healy's comments are brought to the Minister's attention.

Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive has responsibility for the provision of ambulance services. The HSE has advised that services for the Carrick-on-Suir area are provided from the ambulance base in Waterford with a back-up service provided from the ambulance base in Clonmel. Funding of €650,000 was provided in the HSE Capital Plan 2006 for the upgrade of the ambulance base in Waterford.

As part of the revised organisational framework developed under the HSE, a national ambulance service was established to replace the eight ambulance services that operated under the former health board structure. A key task being undertaken by the HSE's national ambulance office is to review the adequacy of the ambulance service in the context of responses to emergency calls. This process has already commenced and will involve a study of the entire country in the form of a spatial analysis that will be conducted in separate stages in different regions. It is anticipated the study in respect of the south-east area will be completed in the latter half of this year. When the outcome of the study is available, it will be used by the HSE to identify the optimum location for ambulance bases and deployment arrangements to meet the identified demands and minimise response times for emergency calls.

The HSE is reviewing ambulance demands, activity and response times with a view to providing the best service for the people of south County Tipperary and Carrick-on-Suir. Decisions on the future location of ambulance bases for the region will also be informed by the re-organisation of acute hospital services in south Tipperary.

People Trafficking Legislation.

Mr. Costello

Thursday, 8 March is International Women's Day, the day that women all over the world seek equality and full human rights. It is an appropriate day to seek the introduction of legislation that would ban trafficking in people, as women and children are the principal people who are trafficked, women for sexual exploitation and children for child labour.

It is a shame that Ireland remains the only country in the European Union that has not introduced anti-trafficking legislation. Someone in the House asks about the legislation every month of every year, but we are told the Bill is imminent, is being drafted and will shortly be published. The legislation is the criminal justice (trafficking in persons and sexual offences) Bill. As it has not yet been published, it is unlikely that it can reach the Statute Book this side of an election.

We have not signed up to all the international conventions and treaties seeking to combat trafficking. For example, the Tánaiste stated last month in the Dáil that the Government was only considering signing the Council of Europe's Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. Likewise, we have not acted on the European Union framework decision on combating trafficking in human beings or the United Nations protocol to prevent trafficking and to punish those involved in it. The issue of victims of trafficking will not be addressed until the Tánaiste's long-promised immigration, residence and protection Bill has been published. That Bill is unlikely to see the light of day before the election.

In the meantime and because of our lax laws, Ireland has become a hub for the trafficking of human beings. Non-governmental organisations and religious groups such as Ruhama have monitored an alarming increase in women and girls being trafficked for exploitation in the sex industry in Ireland. Ireland is being used as a distribution centre for the trafficking industry.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. Trafficking in humans is the modern slavery. Men, women and children become objects of exploitation and are deprived of their humanity and freedom. Ireland prides itself on giving support to oppressed and exploited people everywhere, but it is a sad situation that we cannot put in place legislative safeguards to prevent the oppression and exploitation of people who are trafficked into and through our country by traffickers, the modern equivalent of the slave traders of centuries past.

The Government puts emergency legislation through the Dáil every week. Why can it not treat human trafficking as an emergency issue? Every party would support that legislation and would expedite it through the Oireachtas in a matter of days. This is the opportune day to make that commitment.

Mr. B. Smith

I thank Deputy Costello for raising this important issue as it gives me an opportunity to speak on the Tánaiste's plans in this regard. Before doing so and to allay concerns that the current criminal law governing trafficking and sexual offences may be inadequate, I will outline some of the more important legislative provisions that can be used to protect victims of trafficking.

There can be no doubt that trafficking in human beings is a form of modern slavery. It is a growing international crime that has become a major business for organised crime groups and networks. I want to make it clear that action is being taken to combat this crime and that it is being taken seriously by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda Síochána.

A standing committee on human trafficking has been established in the Department comprising representatives of it and the Garda. It published its first report last May. The report set out the position in Ireland and the State's response to the issue of trafficking, including immigration controls, law enforcement activity, protection of victims and legislation.

Currently, the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 criminalises the trafficking of children into, through or out of Ireland for the purpose of their sexual exploitation. The offence is punishable by a sentence of up to life imprisonment. The Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 created a new criminal offence of trafficking in illegal immigrants and provided a framework by which those engaging in the trafficking of illegal immigrants could be dealt with under the law. The penalty for the offence of trafficking in illegal immigrants on conviction is a maximum of ten years imprisonment with the further possibility of forfeiture of vehicles used for trafficking. Persons involved in people trafficking will invariably commit other offences, often the most serious sexual offences such as rape, and can be charged with those offences.

The 2000 Act does not distinguish between people smuggling and people trafficking, but there is a significant difference between them. For example, a person being smuggled co-operates with the trafficker generally whereas in trafficking in adults, there is an element of force, fraud or coercion. Trafficked persons are victims while smuggled persons are complicit in the smuggling crime. Trafficked persons will often be enslaved, subjected to limited movement or isolation or have documents confiscated.

For that reason, the Tánaiste has prepared legislation that will create specific offences of trafficking for exploitative purposes. It will provide a clear legislative distinction between trafficking and smuggling with higher penalties for persons convicted of trafficking. Last July, the Tánaiste obtained Government approval for the drafting of his proposals and these are now being drafted in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. The general scheme of the Bill, called the criminal law (trafficking in persons and sexual offences) Bill, as approved by Government, is on the Department's website and I will not go into too much detail on its contents. It creates new offences of trafficking in persons into, through or out of Ireland for the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation or the removal of organs. All these terms are defined in the Bill. It also criminalises the sale of children, including on the Internet, for the same purposes. The provisions of the Bill fully comply with the requirements of all international instruments on trafficking. As this is a criminal law Bill, it only deals with the criminal law aspects of trafficking. On the protection of victims, it is intended, as part of the new immigration policy framework, to provide a clear policy statement setting out how trafficking cases can be managed once it is established trafficking has taken place. I emphasise, however, that the lack of a specific legislative provision on the victims of trafficking has in no way reduced Ireland's commitment to dealing sympathetically with cases as they arise.

I again thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.05 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 20 March 2007.