Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes. One other issue, which was not raised last week, concerned women engaged in prostitution. Ms Benson has made a presentation on this matter for Ruhama. The report of the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality deals with the central issue in Ms Benson's submission, that prostitution is a form of violence, and hence our recommendation that we change the law and adopt the Swedish approach. I want to ask Ms Benson, and also the representative of Ugly Mugs, how violence specifically directed at women engaged in prostitution is being tackled. In other words, I am referring to violence beyond the act of prostitution or the sale of sex itself. How can that issue be best approached? Is it by working alongside and co-operating with the Garda? I know, for instance, that Ruhama has a sensitive way of ensuring that incidents are reported to gardaí without necessarily disclosing details about clients.

Ms Smith of Ugly Mugs said the majority of women engaged in prostitution that she knows of are independent. That is against what we found in last year's hearings by the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. Ugly Mugs is clearly at a different level from other organisations that engage with gardaí but if one is talking about developing an app, where does the funding for that come from?