Ms Lucy Smith:

Ugly Mugs started four and a half years ago, initially under the umbrella of the Escort Ireland website. Last year, I took it on as a separate company. It does not have any funding whatsoever, nor does it have an office or staff. It is a web service, so it is not expensive to run. The community provides support so when sex workers are attacked, other sex workers will support them. It is a community initiative whereby everybody supports each other through a network. Ugly Mugs does not provide actual support; it just facilitates people who have problems and connects them with other sex workers they can talk to, as well as other sources of support.

When we ask them, the single biggest thing that sex workers want is a friendly police service, including Garda liaison officers. The other single biggest concern is the message going out that it is okay to abuse sex workers, they are all trafficked so they have to do whatever one wants, and it is fine to rape them. That message is continually sent out in the media but we need to stop it. We need to send the opposite message, that it is not okay to abuse sex workers. Even though there are many reasons that sex workers do not engage with gardaí, the biggest one is the stigma and fear that they may be judged by gardaí, pursued by the media, and have anti-sex work organisations intruding into their lives.

While the police service is the main concern, we would like to see support services for sex workers. At the moment, the main support services for sex workers are the UK ones that provide phone support. Some of the UK organisations do provide phone support to Irish sex workers, but there is basically no support here. That situation is completely undesirable and will allow abuse and crime to thrive because there is nowhere for sex workers to go for help. Many sex workers would like to have a friendly garda to whom they could talk when they experience problems. When we ask them, they continually state that they want all of these different support services, but they do not exist at all.