Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Our amendment has been designed to deal with the situation where there might be two or more sex workers working together for protection but not necessarily with a pimp. I am not in favour of brothels operating without any action being taken. We saw what happened in the case of Rachel Moran who was in a brothel in Dublin at 15 years of age. Effectively, she was a child. However, the amendment could be used as a defence where one or two women prostitutes or sex workers were operating by themselves. The Minister has to accept that it would be safer than in other situations.