Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The fact of the matter is that there is no law against this at the moment, unfortunately. It is difficult to know the prevalence of it. I know in the UK a survey was conducted last year in which 40,000 women responded that they had found themselves in this position within a period of about three months. That is really an unbelievable figure and I do not know how it corresponds to our own situation here. There had been a suggestion that there could be a survey, perhaps through the Rental Tenancies Board, RTB, which conducts annual surveys of landlords and tenants, to see if we could get a figure. It was perhaps felt that this is a very personal and difficult thing for somebody simply to respond to in a survey when he or she is already a tenant. Nor would it cover all situations, for example where somebody is renting a room. It makes it difficult to respond to.

In the UK, the law that does exist comes under prostitution legislation. I think we need to be very careful of the laws and language we use here and how we refer to it. That is the work we are doing with the Attorney General at the moment, to see where this could fit in to legislation here. It is not a criminal offence. I would like to see it as a criminal offence. It is appalling behaviour, the worst type of preying on victims and we need to make sure we stamp it out. However we do that, I hope we will be able to come back to the Deputy as quickly as possible.

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