Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for bringing forward this legislation. It does exactly what we need to see happen. This practice is used as a gateway at times by very unscrupulous people to get young vulnerable women into prostitution. I visited UCD recently and met the sexual exploitation research programme there. What researchers told me about prostitution fits into what we are talking about - vulnerable women coming from dangerous situations. They told me they interviewed 144 women who were overwhelmingly migrant women of 26 different nationalities. Nine of the 144 women were Irish while the remainder were all of other nationalities. A total of 37% were Brazilian, 32% were Romanian and many were from eastern Europe. The average age of the women was 29 but ages varied from 18 to 56. Nine were transgender - all self-identifying as women. Over 40% had insecure or absent migration statuses - in other words, they were undocumented. That is another aspect of this, which does not fit in the Ukrainian situation. A significant number of the women had poor English or English language skills. Many were without stable, safe accommodation living and sleeping in multiple locations wherever they saw buyers. Almost one fifth were of no fixed abode. If we look at that sample of 144 women in prostitution, we can see how it fits into what is being attempted here by some of the people who are initially offering a place for someone to stay. I feel it is a first step to bringing these women into the horrible and despicable trade of prostitution and that this is what is really afoot here. It is important that this legislation is used in such a way that we can find one mechanism to prevent that happening.

Irish people have shown huge generosity, and I have seen this in my own community, to the victims of the war in Ukraine, who are mainly women and children fleeing in terror, through finding homes for them or opening their houses to them. A tiny minority is using that as an opportunity to inflict power on these people because this is about power. The issue is that this tiny minority needs to deliver for themselves and for their own power by exploiting some other individual who is in poor and difficult circumstances in a despicable way. It is very clear that we need to move this on as quickly as possible to ensure this legislation is put in place immediately.

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