Mr. Michael Quinlan:

In response to the Senator's question on whether it is a social problem, again it comes back to how people perceive prostitution and sex work and the reasons people get involved in it. There are people who engage in sex work on an occasional basis or they fall into it by accident, through poverty or addiction. This includes men who have sex with men. A fair number of men would have been thrown out of their homes and made homeless because they were gay. They ended up in the park or out and about. Some men who were addicted to substances came into sex work and were paid a fair amount at the beginning but they could be exploited in the sense that if the buyer found out they were addicted he could reduce the amount of money he paid.

In some areas, there is no doubt there is discrimination, but it is less visible in Dublin than in the past. It is a phenomenom that is probably not talked about, that is, women selling sex. There are cases - men have talked about it - in which they have found a way to make money. I know gay men who go out cruising and, suddenly they meet someone who asks if they are buying. The instigator is not the man going out to buy sex but the person who comes up to him in a cruising area and asks, "Are you buying sex?" All of that happens in the MSM community. If a law is brought in, the question is: how can it be implemented? I was so surprised by the policeman from Sweden at the conference last year. They were practically talking about telephone bugs and listening outside the door. The only way they could get the buyer was to monitor the seller. Although they said they were decriminalising the activities of sellers, they were still monitoring them. Social workers were controlling them, especially if they had children. Therefore, it is not as easy as introducing a law. I was asked about the law, but I cannot come down on one side or the other as I am employed by the HSE. However, I cannot see it working.