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

I have a few brief questions as I am trying to achieve a balance. I have two questions that come from a different perspective from that of my other questions. One of the problems with the current legislation is that in order for a person availing of the service of a prostitute to be convicted of availing of someone who has been trafficked, it must be proved that he or she knew the person was trafficked, which is very difficult to do. What is the delegation's view on the obvious weakness of that legislation in protracting what is essentially slavery? When the committee visited Sweden, we met someone who made a powerful impression on the committee. This was a social worker on the front line who would have dealt with hundreds of prostitutes. Whenever a situation arises in which a user is arrested, the prostitute will immediately be given support services. In addition to all of the evidential issues, the social worker was quite clear that virtually all of them wanted to exit prostitution and she acknowledged the only voices she heard were those still in prostitution. There seems to be a divergence between those who are stuck in prostitution and who advocate for it to be maintained and those who have managed to exit it and who rarely argue that it should be maintained. What are the delegation's views on that unscientific but powerful testimony from somebody who works with prostitutes?