Katherine Zappone (Independent)

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House.

I move:

''That Seanad Éireann recalls the Seanad debate on the Independent Group (Taoiseach's Nominees) Senators' motion 'Criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland to curb prostitution and trafficking' on 12 October 2011 and:

repeats its recognition that the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a modern form of slavery and a form of human rights abuse;

recognises that prostitution and trafficking cause incalculable harm and acute distress to untold numbers of women and children; and that the trafficking of children for the purposes of prostitution is especially abhorrent;

recalls that the motion, as adopted on 12 October 2011, agrees that 'prior to the Government making a definitive decision on whether legislation should be enacted reflecting legislation in Sweden and Norway there should be a considered public debate'; and the six month timeframe given to the House by Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch TD within which the Government would establish this public consultation process;

notes that the six month timeframe has elapsed and that the public consultation process has not commenced;

reiterates the call of the Independent Group (Taoiseach's Nominees) for the Government to develop effective and appropriate responses to deal with prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation, and introduce legislation criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland in order to curb prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Considers that it is possible to draft appropriate legislation, with the advice of the Attorney General, criminalising the purchase of a sexual service by way of prostitution; and notes that some options in this regard have already been explored in independent legal opinions (Immigrant Council of Ireland).

Calls on the Minister for Justice and Equality to uphold the Government's commitment to commence a public consultation process with a view to assisting the Government in making a definitive decision on whether legislation should be enacted reflecting relevant legislation in Sweden and Norway, and in particular calls on the Minister to:

1. publish before the end of May 2012 clearly defined Terms of Reference for the consultation process to consider criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland;

2. provide that the public consultation process should conclude before the end of October 2012;

3. undertake to publish the Report arising from the public consultation process before the end of December 2012; and

4. return to this House to debate the outcome of the public consultation process.''.

The Minister will be aware that the Independent Group of Senators previously submitted a Private Members' motion calling for the criminalisation of the purchase of sex to curb prostitution and trafficking and that it was accepted at the time of that debate that a public consultation would take place and would commence within six months. When as the end of 2011 approached there was still no announcement in regard to the consultation process, I respectfully wrote to the Minister asking when it might commence and he replied that the consultation document was near completion and would be published soon after. In February this year, following the "Prime Time" documentary "Profiting from Prostitution", Senator Power and I raised the issue as a matter on the Adjournment but still no announcement was forthcoming. April 11 then passed, six months since the promise and still there was no word.

It is, therefore, with a sense of disappointment that we propose the motion before the House. I do so to restate our commitment and sense of urgency to the issue before us, namely, that our laws on prostitution and human trafficking need to be changed. On each day of the six months that have passed more than 1,000 women and girls were made available for paid sex in Ireland. Irish research, conducted by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, has explored the intersection of migration, prostitution and sex trafficking. Some 97% of the women involved in prostitution in Ireland are migrant women. The facts are that traffickers and recruiters use sophisticated methods of persuasion, enticement and deception, often exploiting women's situations of vulnerability, including their need to migrate here from situations of extreme poverty, to seek sustainable livelihood's elsewhere. Many of these women endure forced travel, rape, physical and psychological coercion, captivity and the withholding of passports and money. They are then made available for purchase through the Internet. Repeated audits of the Internet have shown that their number has not declined.

I am somewhat heartened to note that the Government's amendment acknowledges the estimates given regarding the extent of trafficking and organised prostitution in Ireland although I submit that much of it reads as though the status quo of protection is working, when clearly it is not. Public debate has taken place over the past six months in the absence of a consultation document. Part of this debate was in the form of two harrowing documentaries which confirm the findings of the Immigrant Council of Ireland's research and enhanced our understanding of the organised nature of prostitution and its link with organised crime. The RTE documentary, "Profiting from Prostitution", was based on six months of surveillance and exposed the control exerted over women by pimps and the structure of an organised brothel network in Ireland. Both reports exposed the chilling reality for hundreds of women who are moved from town to town on a regular basis in order to meet the demands of purchasers. The documentaries - we heard about this again afternoon - dispelled the myth that these women work independently when in fact they are threatened, coerced and enslaved by pimps. The documentaries also show that criminalising the women involved is ineffective and does nothing to dismantle the sophisticated infrastructure of the pimps who remain untouched.

The Minister will be aware that Ireland has a number of international obligations in the context of human trafficking, each of which recognises that measures to deter demand for prostitution represent an efficient approach to reducing sex trafficking. Countries are obliged to introduce legislation to discourage demand. It was pointed out during the previous debate that the Criminal Justice (Human Trafficking) Act fulfils our international obligations, as noted in the Government's amendment. However, I respectfully suggest that while obligations have been met technically they have not been met effectively. The Criminal Justice (Human Trafficking) Act criminalised trafficking in adults or children for the purpose of sexual exploitation and made it an offence to knowingly buy sex from someone who had been trafficked. The Minister will be aware that only a negligible number of convictions have been secured against traffickers under this Act. There have in fact been only two convictions, both of which were in respect of the trafficking of a minor. There is significant difficulty in defining a person as a victim of trafficking under the Act. It appears that such definition depends on the crime having been proven. As such, we have a chicken and egg type scenario while other jurisdictions have more sophisticated methods of victim identification. In essence, the two minors are considered the only victims of trafficking in Ireland yet statistics from the Minister's Department indicate that more than 200 people have been identified as potential victims of human trafficking.

It must be noted that no one has been convicted of purchasing sex from a trafficked person. The Act provides that the purchaser of sex can use the defence that he did not know that the person from whom he was purchasing sex had been trafficked. Clearly then the legislation does not deal adequately with the crime of trafficking, protect trafficked people or tackle the demand for prostitution. The demand to purchase human beings is what we must address. Prostitution is a market-led industry. If the demand side is suppressed, then the supply side will dwindle.

I acknowledge also the Government's noting of the report of the advisory group on HIV in sex work. We look forward to commenting on this in detail during the consultation process. For now, I will simply say that this report is most relevant to developing countries with extremely high levels of HIV transmission, of which Ireland is not one. The health and welfare people involved in prostitution are of paramount concern. There is no reason health strategies, in the form of a harm reduction model as well as a harm elimination model, cannot be pursued in tandem, as in the case of Sweden. The Minister knows that while the Government will ultimately have to make a decision, which must be informed by solid evidence, it will still need to make an ethical and legal choice based on the diverse views presented. That decision will also have to be in reference to an Irish context.

The motion also refers to the progressive legislation introduced in Norway and Sweden on this issue. The Nordic Gender Institute has identified a halving of the number of sex buyers since the purchase of sex was criminalised in Sweden ten years ago. It has also indicated a reduction in organised crime in general. Why and how have these laws proven so effective in Sweden? The Swedish law works as a deterrent to the purchasing of sex. It seeks to change the behaviour of the offender and of other potential offenders by way of penalties and, therefore, the increased chance of prosecution. A fine rather than a criminal conviction faces a first time offender under Swedish law. Purchasers of sex rarely have a criminal profile and are often married or in relationships. Given the profile of the purchaser, the stigma attached to receiving a fine or a notice to their residence acts as an effective deterrent. The introduction of such a law here in Ireland would reflect the belief that it is unacceptable to purchase another human being and that as a society we will not acquiesce when sexual exploitation exists in our towns and cities.

I acknowledge the presence in the Visitors Gallery of members of the Turn off the Red Light Coalition. The Minister may be aware that that coalition has obtained legal opinions on the creation of an offence to obtain a sexual service by way of prostitution. These opinions contain strong legal arguments that there is no legal impediment to the creation of such an offence. Again, we look forward to sharing the detail of these arguments with the Minister during the course of the consultation process.

The Independent Senators who tabled this motion do not consider prostitution and human trafficking to be a peripheral issue nor a matter that warrants delay and postponement. This is a grave issue which some countries have demonstrated can be addressed by law in a way that is effective and can reduce human rights abuses. We have evidence that societies that have enacted a law that criminalises the purchase of sex are healthier and less violent places for all people and, most especially, for women and children. In an Irish context, it is alarmingly clear from recent television documentaries and Irish scholarly research that this land is a place wherein Irish and migrant women and children, some men and boys, are caught in an horrific web of abuse of human rights and restrictions on human freedom. There was a common understanding, given our interpretation of the Government's commitment in October, that Government consultation would have commenced over the past six months. Instead, during that spell of silence by Government, it has been revealed by stark imagery the kind of abuse in this area that is happening throughout our land.

It is good to hear now that the Minister is again committing himself to publishing the consultation document shortly. Time has been lost, however. We are on our feet today because, as Members of the Oireachtas, we feel a depth of responsibility for ensuring this matter is advanced and no further delay happens.