Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can only say "Bravo" to the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy. I was going to start by congratulating the Tánaiste on bringing this Bill before the House. Actually, real credit should be assigned to the two people sitting in front of me as well. The Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton, who was chairman of the joint committee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, have been outstanding advocates for the passage of this Bill. Every third public conversation with the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, in recent years has been on this topic. I wish to pay particular tribute to the two of them and to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, as well as the many groups who have been involved in bringing this reforming legislation to where it is today. The Bill represents a major and long overdue reform of the criminal law in Ireland on the issue of sexual offences.

Ministers and Governments are often criticised from day-to-day for the challenges that emerge. They are seldom praised for the legislation they introduce. However, this should be praised absolutely today. I hope this will become an Act soon. It is reforming legislation that will have long-lasting impacts not only on the law in this area but on how sexual offences are seen and viewed by the public at large as well. It will strengthen the law in a number of areas and tackle a number of weaknesses in the current law that are being exploited. It will enhance child protection online and in real life.

The Bill achieves a number of things. It makes provision for sexual offences against protected persons. It creates a new offence to protect children from grooming. It will protect children from online predators, who exist in their thousands. It will combat child pornography, which is often described as child sexual abuse material. It will tackle the issue of purchases of sexual services. It will reform the laws on incest and clarify issues of criminal evidence and jurisdiction. It is a legislative legacy of which the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality can be proud and an achievement for many who have worked for years to reform the law. It is fair to say that all too often sexual crimes have not been seen in the past as real or serious crimes by too many people. I have often wondered whether this is because the victims are in the main women, although not always. I do not believe, however, that the issues are only of interest to women. People across society from both genders and all backgrounds are calling for the reform of this law.

In recent decades Irish society has been rocked completely by repeated revelations of how prevalent sexual abuse, incest, sexual exploitation and trafficking of vulnerable people for sex have been in Ireland. We have a shameful history in this area and it not only in the past decade or so that we have started to face up to it. The statement by the Taoiseach in the House some years ago on the issue of sexual abuse of children was particularly powerful. This partnership Government and, as the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, said, the previous Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, as well as many on the Opposition benches, committed to the reforms in this Bill.

Prostitution has in the past been seen as a transaction by consenting adults. I am sad to say it is still seen in this way by some. We should listen to those words. My brain does not even understand how someone can think it is a consenting transaction. Rather, it is the exploitation of one vulnerable person - often not an adult - by an adult who is not vulnerable.

That is not a consenting transaction. There is no equality of power between the two parties involved. It is not a service industry. It is a criminal enterprise selling the flesh of a human being, most often a woman, a child and sometimes a young man. It harks back to the days when slavery as a commercial transaction was acceptable. Any politician or person who thinks prostitution is a victimless crime needs to get out of their bubble and meet some of the victims. Young women trafficked across borders, young children whose innocence is exploited and vulnerable men and women in our society are the victims of prostitution. The people who make the profits on these transactions are rarely the people whose flesh is being traded. It is usually people removed from the crime, such as people traffickers and criminal organisations.

This Bill will finally criminalise the purchase of sexual services and focus the minds of those people who consider the purchase of sex before they proceed to break the law and commit a crime for which they will be prosecuted. The Bill has been called by the Children’s Rights Alliance a landmark Bill for the protection of children and young people. It recognises that the law in this area is out of step with reality in our time. The Bill includes new offences to protect children against grooming and online predators and to tackle child pornography.

Irish children are an online generation. They live in a digital world. They are not just more tech savvy than we are, they absolutely could buy and sell any adult in this area. The Children’s Rights Alliance has said that 86% of nine year olds have a computer. That is incredibly scary. A total of 82% of teenagers and 35% of nine year olds and 12 year olds have social media accounts and profiles. Irish children live a tremendous amount of their lives, probably more than any parent will ever admit to, online in a virtual reality. Their innocence must be protected. We need the laws of this land to make sure that will happen.

The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 is designed to protect a range of vulnerable people from sexual exploitation and to take on in particular the predators, both online and those in the real world, who seek to take advantage of these honourable people either by exploiting them sexually to make money and or by selling their bodies. The Bill has completed all Stages in the Seanad and will now proceed to Committee Stage where I am sure we will hear more comments from people who agree with the many we have heard today.

The Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, could not have said what she said more passionately than she did. For anybody who thinks that it is okay for a man to purchase sex from a woman because there is a need in society, I say please sit down and read some of the women's stories. This is not a voluntary profession. It is not even a profession. These women, children and young men are being exploited for money. Let us be very real about this because it is all about exploiting vulnerable people to make money and it is a crime.

See this speech in context