When the bodies of 58 Chinese immigrants were discovered in a container in the British port of Dover last summer, the Irish authorities breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't happened here.
But as the weekend's developments have shown, it was only a matter of time before the tragic reality of the lengths desperate people will go to was driven home.
While the Taoiseach has pledged to spare no effort to bring those responsible to justice, it would be wishful thinking to believe that this is the last bitter taste Ireland will have of the lucrative worldwide trade in people-smuggling.
The organised gangs in the illegal immigrant trade are ruthless and extremely well organised. People-smuggling may not yet be as profitable as drug-smuggling, but nor is it as risky for the perpetrators who do not travel with their "clients".
An estimated seven million illegal immigrants are brought to Europe every year by smugglers. Worldwide estimates of the gangs' total turnover ranges between about £8 billion and £20 billion.
The 58 Chinese people discovered dead in Dover in June last year paid up to £20,000 each to Chinese "snakehead" gangs for the journey. Some was paid up front and the rest promised over a period of years. In other words, they had agreed to become slave labourers for the organised gang.
Since the numbers of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants coming to Ireland began increasing sharply in the late 1990s, several steps have been taken by the authorities to target people-smugglers and traffickers.
The Garda National Immigration Bureau was established in summer 2000 and has appointed liaison officers in London and Paris. The bureau has been expanded significantly in an attempt to combat trafficking by transnational criminal gangs.
The bureau has direct responsibility for immigration duties at Dublin Airport and indirect responsibility for more than 200 garda∅ with immigration duties at other points of entry to the State.
A law was introduced last year providing for 10-year imprisonment or an unlimited fine for people found trafficking illegal immigrants into the State. The Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act also gave garda∅ powers to seize and forfeit vehicles used by traffickers.
There is a distinction, though one that is often overlooked, between people-traffickers who coerce people to go abroad to work, for example, as prostitutes, and people-smugglers who simply arrange transport for a fee. There has been one prosecution under this law, and 20 others are pending.
Ferry companies and airlines are the next to be targeted by the authorities. Legislation introducing fines for those found carrying passengers without proper travel documents is due to be published within the coming weeks. Such measures, which exist in many EU states including the United Kingdom, oblige carrier staff to check passenger documents for authenticity.
However, the proposal to introduce such a law here has met with strong criticism from civil liberties groups and the representative in Ireland of the UN High Commission for Refugees, Ms Pia Prⁿtz Phiri.
Ms Prⁿtz Phiri has said such a law "delegates an authority which squarely lies with states. Many refugees and asylum-seekers are not carrying documents or have false ones, and the end result is that people who need access to a territory may be effectively barred," she said earlier this year.
Ms Phiri said fines should be waived for carriers of passengers who, upon arrival in Ireland, apply for refugee status.
The Road Haulage Association of Ireland has also spoken out against fines for carriers, saying that its members should not become scapegoats in any clampdown on traffickers.
At the time of the Dover incident, the association pointed out in the past that many Irish long-distance drivers had discovered refugees in their trucks after parking them overnight in Belgium or along the French corridor into Calais. The majority of drivers were unknowingly involved, and most were now becoming more vigilant in an attempt to stop refugees using their vehicles, it said.
Instead of fines, the association wants the authorities at ports to introduce compulsory and stringent checks.
Few would dispute a state's right to control its borders and target those who make handsome profits out of the desperation and misery of others.
But while controls will stop some smuggling and trafficking and save some lives, there is also a very real risk in that tighter restrictions make the trade more lucrative for the organised gangs as well as more dangerous for the people resorting to their services.
Refugee lobby groups argue that the international community's failure to find lasting solutions for the plight of millions of refugees worldwide is driving them towards human-smugglers.
As regular arrival routes are increasingly sealed, many refugees continue to turn to smugglers to reach safety, in spite of the dangers and the financial costs. To overcome immigration barriers, economic migrants portray themselves as refugees fleeing persecution.
An independent study commissioned by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and published last July called on European Union countries to review their migration and asylum policies to find ways of opening other channels to refugees.
At the heart of this argument is the contention that there is a contradiction between enforcement policies and the absolute right to claim asylum enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Convention.
Under the convention, states may not turn away people who make claims to be protected as refugees on the grounds that they are fleeing persecution. Until their cases are decided, such people are known as asylum-seekers.
If an asylum-seeker is unable, due to stringent security measures, to enter a country to lodge a claim for protection as a refugee, then in effect the right to claim asylum enshrined in the convention is a theoretical one only.
If a potential refugee is prevented from boarding a ferry or an aircraft with a forged passport, then his or her options might be being locked in the back of a lorry.
A relaxation of European asylum policy or international laws against trafficking or smuggling is clearly not the answer. But neither are blanket enforcement measures alone enough.
What groups like the Irish Refugee Council advocate is that governments should have in their sights not just the traffickers and smugglers but also the people being trafficked and smuggled. As well as legal restrictions, there must be opportunities for refugees and asylum-seekers, both in host countries and their countries of origin. Legal and safe migration opportunities are also part of a comprehensive approach.
The authorities in Ireland point out that most people use the asylum system to enter the Republic without the need for protection from persecution. Up to 7 per cent of applications for refugee status processed are successful.
For people who wish to come to Ireland for economic reasons, there is a work-permit system under which 34,500 people have entered the State this year. But last week's announcement that this system is to be tightened up will restrict that legitimate channel for many.
Clearly a viable solution has to balance the rights of states to sovereignty and control with those of individuals, whether citizens or refugees. European states, including Ireland, need to balance their responsibilities more evenly.
Ultimately, however, human-trafficking will continue to exist as long as "market forces" permit it. It is global inequalities which give people the impetus to flee poor or troubled countries for rich or safe countries.