In 2025, MECPATHS solidified its position as Ireland’s leading voice in the fight against child trafficking. Through high-level institutional partnerships and a sharp focus on frontline education, the work transitioned from raising awareness to embedding specialised training into the very fabric of Ireland’s social and professional infrastructure.

The following highlights some of the key successes and milestones achieved by the MECPATHS team throughout 2025.

1. Institutionalising Education: The RCSI & Academic Breakthroughs

One of the most significant triumphs of 2025 was the formal integration of anti-trafficking modules into professional healthcare education.

• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI): MECPATHS launched a landmark five-week course, “Managing Human Trafficking Concerns in Health and Social Care Settings,” with the first cohort of students completing the program in February 2025 when JP and Ann were warmly welcomed to RCSI as adjunct Lecturers.
• Froebel & Maynooth University: The partnership with the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education matured this year, ensuring that mandatory anti-trafficking training is now a staple for all Bachelor and Professional Master of Education students. This ensures the next generation of Irish teachers is equipped to “spot the signs” in the classroom.
• Ongoing Education Partnerships: UCC, MTU, SETU, TUDublin, Trinity College, Galway University, Shannon College of Hotel Management, Queens University (Belfast).

2. Strengthening State Capacity: The Tusla Partnership (2022–2025)

2025 marked the completion of a multi-year cycle of intensive workshops with Tusla (The Child and Family Agency).

• Scale: Since 2022, MECPATHS has trained over 1000 Tusla staff members across departments, including Residential Care, Fostering, and the Unaccompanied Minors & Separated Children’s Team.
• Impact: This collaboration has closed a critical gap in the state’s response system, empowering social workers to identify children who may be “hidden in plain sight” within the care system.
• Oversight: Following Tusla’s engagement, HIQA (The Health Information and Quality Assurance Oversight body) engaged MECPATHS support to deliver training to their inspectorate, making MECPATHS Education mandated for all HIQA Inspected child-facing services. A significant National achievement.

3. Expanding the Reach: The Private Security & Youth Sectors

MECPATHS successfully scaled its reach into industries that act as the eyes and ears of Irish society.

• Private Security Authority (PSA): In a major strategic win, MECPATHS finalised a relationship to deliver online training to 24,000 security guards across Ireland. Security personnel are often the first to witness suspicious behavior in transit hubs and restricted areas.
• Youth Work Sector: During Children First Awareness Week 2025, MECPATHS led the conversation for the youth work sector, highlighting the reality that child trafficking affects all demographics in Ireland, not just international arrivals.

The 2025 Landscape: Challenges & Advocacy

While celebrating these successes, MECPATHS remained a vocal advocate for systemic change. In response to the 2025 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which kept Ireland at a “Tier 2” ranking, the organisation pushed for:

• NRM Reform: Continued pressure on the government to fully operationalise the revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which would allow “trusted partners” (like NGOs) to formally identify victims.
• Child-Specific Identification: MECPATHS highlighted the statistical anomaly that while child trafficking is a global crisis, Ireland’s formal identification of child victims remains disproportionately low—a sign of “systemic silence” rather than an absence of the crime.
• National RoundTable: Ireland’s first National Roundtable on Child Trafficking was co-hosted in October by MECPATHS and UCC’s Law and Applied Social Studies Departments. A significant event with representation from The United Nations, The Council of Europe, The Department of Justice, Migration & Home Affairs, Tusla, The Director of Public Prosecution, An Garda Siochana Human Trafficking Investigation and Coordination Unit, The Ombudsman for Children, Youth and Community Sector, former Chief Justice and The Sexual Violence Centre Cork. A publication of proceedings will be available in early 2026.

“Know It, See It, Say It”

MECPATHS’ success in 2025 has been defined by the move from ad-hoc workshops to accredited, mandatory training. By targeting hospitality, healthcare, and education sectors, MECPATHS has created a “safety net” across Ireland that makes it increasingly difficult for traffickers to operate undetected. MECPATHS works through collaboration, action and partnership recognising that strategic partnership brings change and relationships develop a natural strategy of shared knowledge and ownership of change.

Messages to info@mecpaths.ie