21st November
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| Nonsense claims of scale of trafficking debated in Irish Parliament
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Based on article from rte.ie
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Over 1,000 men pay for sex in Ireland every day, according to Fine Gael's Denis Naughten. In a Dáil debate on a Fine Gael motion aimed at stamping out people trafficking, he said that 97% of the 1,000 women believed to be involved in indoor
prostitution were migrants. The Fine Gael Private members motion criticises Government policy and calls for an urgent examination of our prostitution laws. Naughten said changes to the law on prostitution in the UK could push illegal
traffickers out of Northern Ireland and into the Republic, making us a red light country. His party colleague Simon Coveney said prostitution would never be eradicated entirely, but if we were to help those people who were trafficked in here, then
those who paid for prostitution had to be criminalised. He said it had been claimed that trafficking produced €15.5 billion in profits during 2005, so it was probably higher now. Most of them were aged between 18 and 24 years and in this country,
most were women. The Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, denied allegations that the gardaí or the national immigration unit were not doing enough to target people traffickers.
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Ireland solicits public suggestions for updating prostitution law
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 | 28th June 2012
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| 23rd June 2012. See article from
inis.gov.ie
See
Discussion Document on Future Direction of Prostitution Legislation [pdf]
from inis.gov.ie |
Ireland's justice minister, Alan Shatter, has published a major new document which looks at whether Ireland's laws around prostitution should be changed. He writes: I am pleased to publish this discussion document,
which is being issued to assist a public consultation process on the future direction of legislation on prostitution. The criminal law in this area is being reviewed primarily because of the changed nature of prostitution in
Ireland. Prostitution in this country was once mainly a street-based phenomenon. That is no longer the case. The organisation of prostitution is now much more sophisticated, highly mobile and is easily facilitated by the use of mobile phones and the
internet. While there is a significant amount of criminal legislation in this area already, there is always scope for change and improvement. It is important to review the law periodically to ensure it is up to date and
comprehensively responds to altered circumstances.
The document identifies several approaches of law from drecriminalisation to prohibition. It claims to be neutral about the options, but supporters of a particular approach are
expected to say how it will reduce the scale of prostitution rather than explaining how it will reduce the problems associated with prostitution. Update: Nutters somehow correlate migrant sex workers with supposed
trafficking 28th June 2012. See article from bbc.co.uk
A conference in Dublin on sex trafficking is calling on the government to make it illegal to pay for sex. A review of the law on prostitution is an opportunity to send a strong message to those who control the sex trade in Ireland, according to
the nutter organisers. Trade minister Joe Costello will speak at the conference. Denise Charlton, of the Immigrant Council of Ireland claims: We know that 97% of women in prostitution here are migrants, often
tricked into travelling to Ireland under the false pretence of a better life. Ireland now has a unique opportunity to address a shortfall in the law which has allowed this sordid trade to grow. We are asking all like-minded groups
and individuals to join us and either through public statement or by making a submission to tell the government the only way to end this trade is to cut off supply by prosecuting men who purchase sex.
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Campaigners want to end sex work to prevent the 8 cases of trafficking last year
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| 17th August 2012
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| See article
from belfasttelegraph.co.uk
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A miserable campaign to criminalise men who pay for sex has launched billboards in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford. Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland which has helped support the campaign, said all
avenues need to be explored to raise awareness and force a law change. She said The story of Anna depicted on the billboards is in no way unique and reflects a reality which exists in every county in Ireland. The Turn Off The Red Light
Campaign cited Department of Justice figures for 2011 which show that eight children were trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation, with 15 detected in 2010. Charlton said: Public support is needed to bring about real change and we hope
the billboard and Twitter campaign will motivate people to contact their local politicians and demand that the sex trade is shut down by making it illegal to pay for sex. Turn Off The Red Light campaigns to end prostitution in Ireland and is
backed by more than 50 organisations including trade unions, political parties and nutter groups. It wants to make Ireland's vice laws similar to Sweden where people who pay for sex are criminalised before the prostitute.
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Escort Ireland calls for politicians to listen to sex workers
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| 3rd
September 2012
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| See article from thesun.co.uk
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Miserable Irish politicians considering banning prostitution have been urged to back off by a leading escort agency. MPs and senators mulling over new laws to outlaw customers paying for sex have even been invited to visit the offices of Escort
Ireland. The web firm submitted a lengthy appeal to the Leinster House committee looking at law changes. Their submission states: We believe there is nothing wrong with someone paying for sexual services and most
clients are decent people.
We don't think adults should be prosecuted for privately paying other consenting adults for sex. Escort Ireland, which by-passes a ban on advertising sex services by operating from the UK, warned against
driving the business underground. They added: We feel the views of sex workers are the views that need to be heard more than any others.
'Justice' and Equality Committee member and Fine Gael TD
David Stanton said: The committee should be careful about what weight it affords certain submissions like this one. There are all sorts of people involved in prostitution and they have their own agendas.
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Ruhama response published to Irish government consultation on sex work law
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11th September 2012
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| Thanks to David
See sexwork.ie
See
Ruhama Consultation Submission [pdf] from sexworkie.files.wordpress.com
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Sexwork.ie is an escort advertising company's blog on the 2012 Irish Government consultation on prostitution. The site is keeping track of submissions to the Irish governments consultation on changing the country's prostitution laws. The
site has analysed the submission from the umbrella campaign group Turn Off the Red Light. It has also just published the consultation result from the most extremist of the Irish anti prostitution campaigners of Ruhama . Predictably it has
called for extreme punishments to all activities linked to sex work and of course the criminalisation of people who purchase sex.
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Rare compassion from an Irish lawmaker on the subject of buying sex
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| 17th January 2013
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| See article from
irishtimes.com
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Ireland's Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality yesterday heard arguments for and against the criminalisation of buying sex. It was good to hear of a little compassion from one lawmaker. Senator Mary White said she had
compassion for those who had no access to legitimate sexual relationships . She said people had an obvious psychological and physical need for sex and she asked if the selling of sex should not be legitimised to protect the buyer and the seller.
...Read the full article
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Nasty Irish MP to introduce bill to jail men just for paying for sex
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3rd May 2013
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| See article from
irishtimes.com
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Legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex will be introduced to the Dail tomorrow. The Criminal Law Sexual Offences Bill, to be introduced by Independent TD Thomas Pringle, sets out to impose harsh criminal sanctions on those who pay for sex.
Persecution of men via the so called Swedish model is being advocated in Ireland by the Turn off the Red Light Campaign. The campaign, is endorsed by 68 organisations including various gender extremist groups eg Ruhama, the Irish Congress of Trade
Unions, the Labour Party and Barnardos. Pringle claimed: [The Bill] will reduce the demand for sexual services, thereby reducing the incidence of prostitution in society. It will create a situation that will
remove the attractiveness of prostitution and trafficking from organised criminal elements by creating the risk for purchasers of sexual services to be prosecuted with the element of 'name and shame' acting as a deterrent.
Penalties
The Bill provides for an ascending scale of penalties, from a fixed-notice fine of EUR500 for first-time offenders, to a EUR4,000 fine and/or four-week jail sentence for repeat offenders.
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For the first time, men and women selling sex indoors in Ireland have been asked about their lives by UglyMugs.ie, and the findings harshly contradict the media image of sex workers in Ireland
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| 20th September 2013
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| See press release from
prweb.com
See full report C rime and Abuse Experienced by Sex Workers in Ireland,
2013 Victimisation Survey |
UglyMugs.ie invited Irish indoor sex workers to take part in the research, which aimed to learn more about escorts in Ireland and particularly about their experiences of crime and abuse. This is the first ever survey of indoor sex workers in Ireland
and 195 female, male and trans* escorts took part. Although the survey cannot be considered representative of all persons selling sex in Ireland, 195 participants is a very significant proportion of the Irish sex worker population.
The escorts who took part in the survey were from 29 different countries. Most were aged in their 20s or 30s and highly educated. Just over half had worked in sex work in another country prior to becoming an escort in Ireland. 97.3%
were self-employed independent escorts, though 33.3% had experience of working for a third party, e.g. an escort agency, in Ireland or elsewhere in the past. Despite it being popularly reported in the media that children are
involved in prostitution, there was no evidence of the involvement of any under 16s and only one participant was aged under 18. Participants reported low alcohol and drug use, high condom use, and taking a number of security
measures whilst working as an escort, the top ones being not getting in cars with clients (65.3%), taking more precautions when it is a new client (58.1%) and not working alone (41.1%) despite the laws in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
that force escorts to work alone if they want to work legally. Ireland's sex worker population overwhelmingly works indoors with access to phones and the Internet, which is safe conditions, in comparison to outdoor sex working.
However, many of the participants reported experiences of a wide range of crime and abuses. It is also clear that a wide range of persons commit crime against sex workers in Ireland, not only clients. 66.7% of participants who had
been a victim of crime whilst working as an escort in Ireland did not report to the police. The high level of stigma associated with being an escort being the primary barrier to engaging with police. Participants said that other
escorts were the biggest source of help to them after experiencing crime. The research confirmed that currently there are no useful support services for escorts in Ireland, but escorts would welcome the establishment of a variety of sex worker support
services. Fear of media exposure amongst escorts in Ireland is very high, even higher than fear of crime, with 74.6% of participants worried or very worried about being exposed as an escort in the newspapers or other media.
Recommendations include further research, a review of laws and policies that put sex workers at risk, tackling media abuse of sex workers and the provision of police sex worker liaison services and general advice, legal advice, health
services and exiting services for sex workers. The full report outlines that a number of factors put escort at risk of violence and abuse. The lack of support services and good relations with police, mean offenders specifically
target escorts, in the belief that they are people in society without any help, who offenders can abuse with a very low risk of facing any consequences as a result. The media portrayal of escorts as people with no rights, no choices, helpless victims who
can't say no to anything or anybody, is also sending a very dangerous message to offenders. UglyMugs.ie is a scheme that aims to improve the safety of sex workers in Ireland and reduce crimes committed against them, by bringing
sex workers together to share information about potential dangers. Commenting on the research, UglyMugs.ie said: There has never been any independent research into indoor sex work in Ireland.
Instead of asking sex workers about their lives, we ask anti-prostitution campaigners. As our initial research here has shown, the Irish public are being grossly misled. Proper independent research must now be carried out now to establish the reality of
indoor sex work in Ireland, so sensible legislation can be put in place.
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Irish Government set to publish bill to criminalise people who pay for sex
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| 26th November 2014
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| See article from
irishexaminer.com |
The Irish Government is officially making it illegal to pay for sexual services. It has been confirmed that a new bill, to be published on Thursday, will criminalise prostitution for the first time. The legislation will make it illegal to pay for
sexual services. |
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More details on the Irish proposed law to criminalise people buying sex
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| 5th December 2014
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| See article from
nswp.org |
The Republic of Ireland's government has introduced a bill that will make it a criminal offence to pay for sex. The bill comes a year after the Oireachtas 'Justice' Committee's Report on the Review of the Legislation on Prostitution in Ireland
made the recommendation that the purchase of sexual services should be made illegal. 'Justice' Minister Frances Fitzgerald introduced the new legislation on November 27th , claiming that her proposed bill reflects an all-island consensus to
targeting the predominantly exploitative nature of prostitution. The draft legislation makes purchasing sexual services a general offence, and the purchasing of sexual services from trafficked persons a more serious offence. The Irish
Department of 'Justice' said: In both cases, the persons selling the sexual service will not be subject to an offence Unlike the existing offences relating to prostitution such as soliciting, loitering or brothel
keeping, this offence will specifically target the demand for prostitution.
However, as Ireland-based activist and writer Wendy Lyon pointed out on Twitter, the offence of paying for sexual services will be inserted into the
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 as Section 5A and there is no repeal of any of the parts of the 1993 Act that currently criminalises sex workers. This bill will NOT decriminalise sex workers she wrote. An Irish sex worker,
Jenny, said: I think [the Swedish Model] is a very very scary model and that people don't truly understand how far-reaching it can be. You're basically playing cat and mouse against the police
all the time if you introduce the Swedish model and you're just trying to work against the police and you're not getting any help. It's bad enough as it is already. It's going to be worse if they introduce the Swedish Model.
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Irish government decides to proceed with nasty bill to criminalise men for buying sex
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24th September 2015
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| 17th September 2015. See article from irishexaminer.com
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The purchasing of sex will be outlawed under new criminal offences. Miserable ministers signed have agreed to a bill that will see those buying sex face fines of €500 or up to €5,000 if the person is trafficked. 'Justice' Minister Frances Fitzgerald
is expected to publish the final legislation next week and make an announcement on when the new criminal offence will be enacted. It is unclear if it will or will not decriminalise sex workers in brothels or on the streets. A group which calls
itself the sex workers alliance of Ireland said it was a sad day for sex workers and that there are efforts in Sweden to decriminalise sex workers or soliciting by prostitutes. Update: Discriminatory Law 24th
September 2015. See article from irishtimes.com
New legislation on sexual offences criminalises paying for sex with prostitutes, but ensures the person offering sexual services is not guilty of a crime. Presumably Ireland does not have laws against inciting people (their customers) to commit a crime.
Minister for Injustice Frances Fitzgerald published the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 on Wednesday, claiming she was committed to addressing the very real and tragic crimes of trafficking and exploitation associated with
prostitution. She said: I am convinced that targeting the demand for such services is the way forward.
Ms Fitzgerald said her proposals mirrored the approach adopted in Northern Ireland and other
jurisdictions which she said had seen a reduction in demand for the services provided by prostitutes. |
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Irish police have initiated just 2 prosecutions for buying sex
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| 2nd April 2018
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| See article from thetimes.co.uk |
Gardai have only initiated 2 prosecutions under a law passed last year to criminalise the purchase of sex. The 2017 Sexual Offences Act -- which introduced the so-called Nordic model criminalises the customers of sex workers. Under the law, women must
be willing to participate in court proceedings against their clients. This contrasts with Scandinavia where the law lets police officers testify about the paid for sex. The Times say Garda sources claim some women are often frightened to face a
punter in court, as they may be linked to organised crime gangs who can threaten the women's family and friends. But in reality the women aren't going to do very well in business if they don't look after their customers. Gardai sources also claim
the force is missing out on valuable tip-offs from punters about trafficked women, because men are unsurprisingly unwilling to get involved when they themselves would be prosecuted. |
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Amnesty International finds that Ireland's prostitution laws facilitate violent attacks on sex workers
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| 27th
January 2022
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| See article from independent.co.uk
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Amnesty International has found that Ireland's prostitution laws are facilitating violent attacks against sex workers. Sex workers say they see police as a threat rather than a shield. Research carried out by Amnesty International warned
legislation implemented in 2017 was driving sex workers to put their lives at risk in a desperate bid to dodge the police. The organisation accused authorities of misusing the law, which was billed as being created to stop human trafficking and
exploitation of sex workers. Amnesty reported: Our research clearly shows that criminalising the purchase of sex is forcing sex workers to take more risks while penalising brothel-keeping is preventing sex workers from
working together to ensure their own safety.
Ireland criminalised the buying of sex and substantially bolstered penalties dished out for brothel-keeping -- which is defined as two or more sex workers operating from the same property.
Many sex workers choose to work together to keep safe from clients but those doing so in Ireland can be sentenced to a year in jail or hit with a 5,000 euro (£4,187) fine under the 2017 laws. The new research, based on interviews with sex
workers, found most had been subjected to violence from clients while doing their jobs. But sex workers said they were too scared of the police to report attacks against them due to assuming the complaint would not be followed up - with them also voicing
fears of experiencing harassment or violence from police officers. The Irish government is presently reviewing the laws which are known as the Nordic Model after they were first introduced in Sweden. |
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