Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A number of issues have been touched on and the Minister gave examples from other jurisdictions. The lack of evidence in respect of these matters has been commented on in all jurisdictions. Claims about alleged successes or magic wand solutions in Sweden and Norway have not stood up to scrutiny and there are serious concerns about the lack of evidence initially being to the detriment of being able to analyse progress. If the research is not done at the beginning, no one can say how successful anything is. Other changes happened in Sweden and while street prostitution changed, there was nothing to indicate that it had not been diverted into other areas such as the Internet. The best Sweden could claim was that prostitution had not increased.

Deputy Wallace referred to Norway and the thorough research undertaken there by Amnesty International. One of their pilot studies highlighted serious harassment of sex workers in their place of work, which was largely their homes or their premises. The amendment is trying to decriminalise the activity where one or more women work together and the Minister said they might be unable to afford a premises but, in many instances, they are using their homes. By criminalising the activity, we face the prospect of forcing these people into homelessness. A landlord could evict them and that is dangerous and harmful in the current climate here. It has been deemed to be harmful by many organisations, including the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Anti-Slavery International, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization.

The House of Commons produced its half yearly review earlier this week, which was an impressive document. The recommendation in this area is that at the earliest opportunity the Home Office should amend existing legislation in order that soliciting would no longer be an offence and brothel keeping provisions would allow sex workers to share premises without losing the ability to prosecute those who control or exploit sex workers. That is the nuance or the fine line we are trying to address. When a capable, rational adult women is engaged in a practice with another capable adult woman or man for the provision of sexual services and they give evidence that they are not being coerced by anybody, that has to have a certain status. Deputy Wallace is correct that we have not listened to the people who are engaged in this activity. In the context of introducing legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex, if we do not make this provision, then we will make prostitution even more dangerous than it is now.

Deputy Coppinger's points are not appropriate with regard to this important issue. Sex with a 14 year old or 15 year old child is absolutely unlawful in any circumstance under existing legislation. Saying she agreed to it or she was working in the industry is no defence whatsoever. The Deputy is conflating issues that are not related. Amendment No. 16 enables the prosecution of sex workers but allows them to use this as a defence and is not adequate. This is about harm reduction. I acknowledge the Minister has said her goal in this area is to reduce harm. Concentrating on demand will not tackle many of the issues around sex work, including the gender dimension, class, race and so on. By tackling demand, the Minister is not addressing those inequalities and is ignoring the experiences of sex workers who have not been consulted on this. All the evidence points to the wrong people being caught up in this and that is what this is about. More than 90% of these cases prosecuted in Ireland are taken against sex workers. They are not taken against pimps, organised crime lords and so on. It is one or two people working together, many of whom are not Irish. Some came to Ireland to engage in sex work but more did not. We are not helping them by failing to address this issue.

The House of Commons report places huge emphasis on research and evidence and that is sorely lacking in policy making in this jurisdiction. We need to conduct better research. Many good examples and experience show this protection needs to be in place.