Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister is aware, a huge amount of work went into this report. There were approximately 800 submissions as a range of people appeared before the joint committee. It is an all-party report and the Minister will agree that, at present, those who avail of the services of prostitutes throughout Ireland walk away scot free, while the unfortunate people - very often foreign nationals - who are vulnerable, find themselves paraded in local newspapers and radio stations and with their lives reported on. A decision must be made to pass responsibility onto the users, rather than those who, in the vast majority albeit not all cases, are vulnerable, are being used by others and whose dignity is taken away by the process. I ask the Minister to do something courageous and to do what is right with regard to this all-party series of recommendations based on a great amount of work and deliberations. As the recommendations are crystal clear, I again ask the Minister whether he can implement them.

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