Ms Maeve Lewis:

I thank the Chairman for inviting One in Four to address the committee. I am Maeve Lewis, executive director, and my colleague, Ms Julie Browne, is our advocacy officer. I am also a psychotherapist with more than 20 years experience of working with survivors of sexual violence.

All of our groups are present with a common purpose, namely, to ensure the review of legislation achieves the best possible outcome in terms of alleviating the harm caused to those engaged in prostitution, together with the achievement of the common good. It is estimated that the sexual services of 1,000 men, women and children are bought in this country every day. The majority of this activity takes place in private spaces, outside of the public domain. The transactions are increasingly negotiated using new technologies, making them difficult to police. The current system of criminal justice is not adequate to address the complexities of the sex trade, but the question of the best way forward is difficult to answer. As such, the committee's work is important.

My colleagues from the other organisations have been addressing various aspects of this question. In the time allowed, I will focus my comments on the work done by One in Four in the field of sexual violence. I will suggest that prostitution and trafficking must be understood as forms of sexual exploitation and, as such, form part of a continuum of sexual violence.

One in Four is unique, in that we work with every aspect of sexual violence. We offer counselling and advocacy services to men and women who were sexually abused in childhood and provide a sex offender treatment programme. Each year, we work with approximately 1,000 people.

Our clients have taught us a great deal about sexual violence. We know the suffering that lies behind the statistics and understand that the impact of sexual violence in childhood reverberates throughout a person's life. Our clients describe themselves as experiencing self-loathing and feeling contaminated and worthless. They suffer endless shame, fear and guilt. They tell us of how they try to self-soothe by using alcohol and drugs, often developing addiction problems in the process. The majority meet the criteria for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Some, both men and women, tell us of how they have worked in prostitution.

We are all agreed that the prostitution of children is always wrong. Equally, I am sure we all agree that the trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery is vile and undermines any notion of human rights and human dignity.

On the other hand, it is often argued that adults have the right to choose to sell and buy sex freely and that sex between consenting adults should not be criminalised. That is to misunderstand the nature of consent. Research suggests that approximately two thirds of people working in prostitution have experienced sexual abuse in childhood. What is termed "consent" or "choice" will often have been conditioned by the impact of that sexual abuse. Prostitution reinforces the cycle of self-loathing and shame, causing further harm to the person's psychological and emotional well-being. Our clients who have worked in prostitution tell us of being obliged to fake sexual pleasure, to engage in sexual acts they find degrading and distressing and, at times, being forced to perform unsafe sexual acts. They also tell us of being raped and sexually assaulted and of believing that, as prostitutes, they had no recourse to the protection of the law. Their testimony strongly indicates that we must view prostitution as a form of sexual violence and so-called choice as being anything but free.

A review of international best practice shows that, as others have mentioned, there is no single approach that would provide a definitive model for Ireland to follow. However, One in Four is persuaded that the Swedish model, which criminalises the buyers and those who organise the trade, provides the most promising roadmap. While there are accusations of bias in the outcome research of the Swedish law, it would appear the number of people engaged in prostitution has decreased significantly, as has the number of people trafficked into Sweden.

However, what is most striking in Sweden is the change in social attitudes to the buyers of sex, especially among younger men and women.

Our own experience tells us that legal changes can induce striking shifts in social attitudes. Our drink-driving laws and same-sex marriage laws are but two examples of what extraordinary social change has followed legislative reform. If prostitution were to be decriminalised in Ireland, as it was in the Netherlands, it is likely the sex industry would become normalised, demand would grow and immense harm would be caused to vulnerable men and women. Conversely, criminalising the buyers and organisers would deepen awareness that prostitution is exploitative and damaging as well as helping to create a social norm that stigmatises the buyer rather than the prostituted person.

One in Four proposes that prostitution and trafficking is exploitative and harmful to vulnerable persons and is a form of sexual violence. The most positive way forward would be to criminalise the buyers and organisers of the sex trade with a view to profoundly changing social attitudes to prostitution.