Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to thank everybody who contributed to the debate, including the Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin Deputies who expressed their support for the Bill, and individual Deputies who also expressed their support. In addition, I acknowledge the contributions of Deputies who have concerns about the Bill and who are opposed to it.

The debate has been interesting and it is important to discuss this matter in the House. Deputy Mathews is correct in saying that we can talk for long enough about the issue in committees and also have consultations, but there comes a time when we have to take action.

I am somewhat concerned that, as the Government is awaiting the report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, there will be a further debate here. It seems to me that decisions will be long-fingered and pushed down the road. In recent years, we have heard so much of the famous term "kicking the can down the road".

The purpose of this legislation is that the law should be used as a deterrent and a tool to change cultural and behavioural attitudes in society. The legislation had to be simple and basic in terms of the criminal law. It would not have been possible to include the social measures required to help people out of the sex trade and give them economic alternatives so they could have a reasonable standard of living without being forced to sell themselves on the streets, in brothels or on the Internet.

In my opening contribution, I tried to emphasise that point and have continued to do so at all times. Deputy Clare Daly said the legislation was simplistic, but it had to be so. Unfortunately, she may have missed the purpose and the wider overall context of the Bill.

I wish to address a couple of points the Minister of State made in his contribution, particular concerning the report of the UNAIDS advisory group on HIV and sex work. That report was published in December 2011 and expressed concerns about the conflation of sex work and trafficking, and the impact that failing to distinguish clearly between the two has on sex workers. However, there is a clear disclaimer at the start of the report, stating that not all members of the UNAIDS advisory group were in agreement with the position adopted in the report. In addition, the report was clearly set in the context of examining developing countries with a high level of AIDS and protecting people in those societies. It is therefore important to put that report in context.

Another aspect is that sex work or prostitution does not distinguish between trafficking and people who are forced into it through economic circumstances. When a man goes into a brothel in this country, or cruises the streets looking for a sex worker, he is not interested whether they were trafficked or not. He will not distinguish between them. Prostitutes working in brothels may have been trafficked, while others are natives of the country.

Sex work encourages and leads into trafficking. The Department's own figures show that between 2008 and 2011, 134 people were trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation. Some 32 of those were children. Those are only the figures we know about, but we do not know the true extent of it. It is true that we just do not know the full extent of all aspects of the sex industry. As some Deputies said earlier, in Sweden the authorities did not know the full extent of prostitution before the law was implemented there. We do not know the full extent here either. All we have is the best guesstimate of the gardaí and NGOs who are dealing with prostitutes.

The Minister of State also said that human trafficking for sexual exploitation is unacceptable and in this jurisdiction the criminal law does not tolerate that. However, even though we know that 134 people were trafficked here for sexual exploitation from 2008 to 2011, not one person has been charged or convicted of using a trafficked person for sexual exploitation. That clearly shows that the system has not worked and is still not working. That is what my Bill is attempting to address.

Even if this legislation was accepted and passed by the Government, it would not be regarded in isolation or seen as a solution.

It must be seen within the overall context and resources must be put in place to assist women out of the sex trade and out of prostitution, if they so wish. They should be given training, economic means and resources in order that they can provide for themselves and their families with an alternative.

Although I would love to see it, unfortunately I do not believe Members can wait for the revolution to bring economic justice across society in such a way that there was no economic exploitation of women, who then would not be forced into the sex trade. While I would love to see it and agree it would be great were that to happen because it would solve a great number of problems, it is not going to happen now. Consequently, Members must do something now and must act. I do not suggest this Bill would eradicate prostitution completely. However, I believe it would contribute to changing the circumstances and culture that obtains in Irish society at present. Moreover, there are examples of how such legislative measures have worked. Culturally, drink driving is now completely unacceptable in Irish society. It has not been eradicated and still happens as people are still being prosecuted. However, it is culturally unacceptable and is becoming increasingly so. Similarly, the smoking ban has changed the culture in society and it has become culturally unacceptable for people to smoke, except out in the open air. This is vital and is the context in which this Bill and this campaign are operating as they also are trying to change the culture.

There has been some comment on how women in the sex trade in Sweden have been marginalised and how their position has been made more dangerous and less safe on foot of the introduction of the criminalisation of buyers of sex there. However, it is interesting that according to a March 2013 report in The Independent, in 2012, 40 women, mostly Romanians who probably had been trafficked into Sweden for the sex trade, were sufficiently confident to be able to go into court to give evidence against the men who had exploited them because of the decriminalisation that has taken place there. This is an important factor.

I will conclude by reading a quote from an Internet blog by a former sex worker, which I believe is important and which contributes to the debate:

Rape [has] become part of the job, so much so that we don't really use the term rape, we don't have permission to, we might allude to it but then it's ignored and the subject is changed. Many become desensitised to the pain of others, because if you [ac]knowledge someone else's pain, you may just have to acknowledge your own, and we don't have anywhere to place or deal with that pain, so some bury it, some use substances to forget it, some disconnect from it and unfortunately some accept it as routine.

She goes on to say:

The sex industry is both a cruel and disturbing place, run by criminals and all efforts must be made to bring it to its knees and the only way to do that is to cut off what makes it exist in the first place, ... men who believe they have a right to buy other human beings.

It is important to consider this and in the context of a regularised industry, I note the example of Amsterdam demonstrates it does not work. It does not prevent trafficking but in fact encourages it. Similarly, it does not prevent under-age children from being forced into prostitution. There was so much concern in Amsterdam about this problem that the authorities were obliged to set an age limit of 21 years for prostitutes to try to curb it. Similarly, the New Zealand model has been mentioned but there is evidence from that country that children as young as 12 are being put into prostitution because the industry has been deregulated.

The plight of au pairs has been cited here in the context of their exploitation within Irish society. Ireland has well-developed labour laws. It has laws against exploitation, about payment of wages and about entitlements for workers. Nevertheless, au pairs still are being exploited in this society. Workers are being exploited across this society and it can be seen that when prostitution and the sex trade are regularised, the sector is moved away from enforcement because there is no way that enforcement will deal with the issues women must face in this society.

For this reason, Members must go down the road proposed in this Bill. In addition, it will be necessary to put in place services and resources to ensure that women have an economic alternative to prostitution. While doing this, Members can then work towards the revolution for which Deputy Boyd Barrett hopes, in which there can be complete economic freedom for everyone.

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