A suspected child trafficker admitted to smuggling children through Rosslare Port during a television documentary broadcast last night.
Hasan Redzheb Hasan (47) was taped by BBC journalists posing as British customers while offering to sell them children for €60,000.
The suspected Bulgarian trafficker has since been arrested in the Black Sea city of Varna after police received a video that showed him trying to sell babies to the undercover BBC journalists.
Hasan admits in the documentary that he previously smuggled children to Germany and Norway and boasted of trafficking prostitutes from Bulgaria to Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney has said the BBC investigation provided further evidence of Ireland being a "soft touch" for international criminal networks.
Mr Coveney called for new legislation and for increased resources for both Customs and the Garda, "particularly in ports and airports" to help the fight against traffickers.
"Currently Ireland remains the only country in the EU not to adequately define people trafficking in Irish law. Despite promising legislation in this regard more than a year ago, the Fianna Fáil Government has simply not prioritised the bringing forward of necessary legislation."
