Ms Monica O'Connor:

I have read about ten of the surveys on buyers of sex and there certainly is a language of consumerism, commodification and the objectification of women. There is also very clearly a relationship between what is available and the consumer response or demand for that. Where prostitution is legal, tolerated, legitimised and available, the demand increases. There is no doubt about that. In Sweden, for example, it is often forgotten that major educational campaigns were conducted alongside the criminalisation process. The drink-driving campaign in Ireland is a useful example in this regard. It is not an either-or situation. We must go for education on what is acceptable. The law in Sweden is declarative and normative and not just punitive. What we should be attempting to do is to change the values. We need to change how men see women in general and change the fact that they see it as acceptable to buy consent and to override consent in the context of a consumerist model. I would urge such an approach, which is educational but is also penalty-based. Fines were mentioned, and in Sweden fines are issued. They have a very rehabilitative system of justice. They are not imprisoning people. That is not what is happening. The law there is very declarative and asserts that the people there want different norms so that young men will grow up with a very different perception of what prostitution and its harms is about.