Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates. Sinn Féin has historically taken the approach of trying to protect the women who find themselves in this situation and assist them by giving them every support to have an exit strategy in place.

There are concerns about the Swedish model. Ms Hetherington cited the recent report and said the level of street prostitution had halved. What is the benchmark for that assessment? How can we know what the levels were or what they are now? I do not have a definitive view on this matter and would like to hear the thoughts of the Irish Medical Organisation on the allegations that the Swedish model suggested pushes prostitution further underground and creates additional dangers for the prostitutes who are mostly women. One of the concerns is that legislation would prevent a number of women involved in the industry, for want of a better description, from sharing an apartment for safety.