I want to raise a report that was issued yesterday in Northern Ireland in relation to approximately 500 women, many of whom were trafficked, who were available for prostitution on legal websites. While the selling of prostitution is illegal in Northern Ireland, as it is here, the websites are not illegal. Obviously, many of these women are very vulnerable. Many of them have come into the country through trafficking and some, sadly, have turned to prostitution because of addiction, poverty and other issues in their lives. It is really important that we help and support these women.

However, we cannot see this a situation isolated to Northern Ireland. Obviously, it is happening every day in our towns and cities and on our streets. We must do more. Looking at the statistics in Northern Ireland, over the past 11 years, 134 arrests were made but there were only five convictions. We need to see what the statistics are here. We need to have a debate with the Minister for justice in relation to this.

I want to give a shout out to Ruhama in particular, which does a lot of really good work in this area. It supported almost 1,300 women last year. Some 36% of those had sought its help for the first time, and many of these had been trafficked. Ruhama has opened a house, called Rose’s House, which has been open for approximately two years now. It is an accommodation space for those who can be rescued out of human trafficking. The Minister, Jim O’Callaghan, has done a lot of work in this area. Only this March, he had a review of exploitation and prostitution. He is considering recommendations. It would be very opportune to bring the Minister in on this matter, but also to learn about the efforts going on at EU level to identify some of the perpetrators. This is really important work that needs to be done.

Last night, I hosted a meeting in the Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, with the Minister of State, Charlie McConalogue, on the upcoming sports capital grants. I thank all those who came. We have wonderful volunteers in my county of Kildare, but also around the country, in terms of supporting many different types of sport. It is incumbent on us to help and support them. One of the big issues, particularly in Dublin, Kildare, Meath and possibly Galway – in areas where there are developing populations - is the scarcity of land. It is important that the Minister of State for sport has a matrix in relation to the population base when trying to match resources and land that local authorities or other State organisations may have. I would like to see a debate on that within this House.