Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the speakers. I am very struck by the disparity there appears to be between women's and men's stories. When one listens to presentations from Ruhama and others who work with women in prostitution, one does not have to look long before one hears stories of misery and exploitation. I wonder if that is because organisations such as Ruhama are dealing with people at the level of psychological well-being, exploring their past, looking at it as a social problem. I wonder if there is any equivalent effort to try to understand what brings people to the place in which they are selling themselves or purchasing other people in the context of sex. Have people explored this behaviour at the level of people's psychological and mental health to consider whether there is a social problem and that people who need care are not being cared for?

My second question is the same question I put to Dr. Freedman; do the witnesses agree as a matter of principle that the sale or purchase of sex from another person is anti-social? Would they support public expenditure, for example, on campaigns to discourage such activity as a matter of principle, whatever about the important work they do in working to secure people's health on an individual basis?