Ireland (Tier 2) - The Government of Ireland does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore, Ireland remained on Tier 2. These efforts included increasing investigations, prosecutions, and convictions. Courts convicted two labor traffickers — Ireland’s first such convictions — and prosecutors prosecuted Ireland’s first forced criminality case. Law enforcement identified significantly more trafficking victims, and the government delivered extensive anti-trafficking trainings to front-line officials. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government did not implement its revised NRM, resulting in continued systemic deficiencies and gaps in victim referral, assistance, and identification. The current NRM process did not allow the government to identify Irish nationals, and officials rarely identified child victims. The government’s framework for providing accommodation to trafficking victims remained inadequate. The government did not provide trafficking-specific training to judges and has never awarded restitution to any victims... 

Trafficking Profile
This section describes the nature and scope of trafficking based on recent government and civil society reporting. Traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ireland, and to a lesser extent, traffickers exploit victims from Ireland abroad. Technology-facilitated sex trafficking, including for recruitment, movement, control, advertising, and exploitation of victims, extends beyond the typical online advertisements and is pervasive; live streaming of sex trafficking continues to increase. Young male traffickers use romance scams to coerce girls and women into sex trafficking, often using a faux romantic relationship as a means of manipulation or control. Sex traffickers increasingly use drug addiction as a form of coercion.

Traffickers exploit victims of forced labor in domestic work, restaurants, cannabis cultivation, nail salons, food processing, waste management, fishing, seasonal agriculture, hospitality, and car washing services. Undocumented workers in the fishing industry and domestic workers, particularly au pairs, are vulnerable to trafficking. Media previously reported instances of sea fishers paying significant fees to recruitment companies in the Philippines prior to arrival in Ireland, increasing their vulnerability to debt bondage and trafficking. A 2023 report indicated Irish-flagged fishing vessels were in the top five of fishing vessels accused of forced labor, representing five percent of all vessels. Refugees from Ukraine, predominantly women and children fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war, are vulnerable to trafficking.

[See also, (global) 2026 trafficking in persons report]