Ms Nusha Yonkova:

That issue has been researched for us by a senior counsel and also by another legal practitioner. The research is available but in a nutshell it concluded that strict liability has not been deemed to be constitutionally completely permissible in sexual behaviour-related offences. It is possible to introduce this, in particular in combination with penalties that are not very high and therefore not a lot is at stake for the offender. Therefore, this consideration from the C.C. case, for example, would not be applicable in those cases.

Furthermore, it has proven that unconditional penalties in relation to situations where behaviour is regulated work far better. The UK, which had opted for conditional penalisation of buyers of sexual services through prostitution, is finding it difficult because of this. We already have an example of how conditional penalisation in the cases of men who are purchasing services from trafficked individuals does not work at all. Since 2008, when the legislation was introduced involving penalties, we have not obtained any convictions. The likelihood is that we will not because who is to say who the trafficked person is in Ireland? We barely identify one or two people per year.