Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputies Cian O'Callaghan and Whitmore and their colleagues on bringing forward this important Bill. The Labour Party offers its strong support for it. All of our thoughts at this time are with the people of Ukraine, who are enduring the horrific bombardment of the brutal Russian invasion. Other speakers have pointed out that this Bill has an application for the many people fleeing to our shores seeking refuge and who may be at risk of exploitation by unscrupulous landlords. We all are very conscious of that. I am very glad the Government is supporting the Bill but I echo the calls of colleagues for a clear timeline for its introduction into law. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, in particular, has expressed strong support for it, which is why the Cabinet has agreed to approve it in principle. That is very important.

We all want to condemn the appalling practice that has been described and which the Bill aims to criminalise. Its provisions would create two offences. The first is the offence of a person accepting or requiring sex for the purpose of access to, or retention of, accommodation and related services. The second offence is that of facilitating the offence of accepting or requiring sex as a condition of accommodation, which is notably aimed at publishers. Both are indictable offences carrying significant penalties. I may comment further on these proposed offences presently.

Before that, I want to speak a little about the context of these proposals. We know from the experience in Britain that this practice, appallingly, is relatively widespread. UK research by Shelter found that between 30,000 and 40,000 people were targeted by current or prospective landlords over a three-month period. We do not have that level of data for this country and it would be important to know how widespread this appalling practice is here. We are absolutely indebted to Ann Murphy and the Irish Examinerfor their report on this and for bringing it to our attention some months ago. In their investigation, they were able to identify particular advertisements containing language and other clear indications that sex was being sought in return for rent. That investigation shows us the need to address this practice specifically in legislation.

It also illustrates one of the causes of this appalling practice, which is the power imbalance in Ireland currently whereby there is so little accommodation for those seeking to rent and landlords, therefore, are in such a position of power relative to tenants. There always is a power imbalance in this regard but notably so during a housing crisis. We are aware that this is a problem throughout the country.

We know from data how few properties are available for rental. It is one of the reasons the Labour Party brought forward a renters' rights Bill drafted by my colleague, Senator Moynihan, to seek to try to strengthen renters' rights and ensure that landlords had more responsibilities. We also need to see an increase in supply of housing and the building of housing on public land. That is crucial to address the housing crisis. We are all well aware of that.

I will speak about the provisions in the Bill and about existing law. The Minister of State identified some drafting issues in his speech and the need for the tightening up of language but these issues could be dealt with through collaboration with the Bill's proposers on Committee and Report Stages. Similarly, the issue of compatibility with existing criminal law could be addressed. There is a need to ensure we have a clearly streamlined series of laws on sex offences, rather than piecemeal amendments being carried out.

In terms of civil law penalties, a sex-for-rent arrangement, under housing law, would clearly be in breach of quiet enjoyment and exclusive possession. However, there is a gap because such covenants are only read into tenancy agreements and not into room-for-rent or room-sharing arrangements. That is clearly a gap. Of course, the remedies for breach of tenancy covenants are civil only and there is no criminal offence committed by a breach.

Deputy Ó Broin made a good point about the need to ensure the Residential Tenancies Board would be able to take action against unscrupulous landlords who engage in this practice. That is another matter that might be addressed through separate legislation.

As others have said, Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 criminalises the purchase of sexual services and brings Nordic-model laws into Ireland in keeping with a unanimous report by the then Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The report was supported by all parties and had the widespread support of the trade union movement, NGOs, the National Women's Council, the Immigrant Council of Ireland and others.

A major campaign resulted in the passage of that important legislation, which has been very effective in other countries in which it has been introduced to tackle to demand for sexual services and reduce the incidence of prostitution. That law was introduced precisely to deal with this issue of exploitation and abuse of power and to recognise that women from migrant and disadvantaged backgrounds, in particular, are very much at risk of exploitation and abuse and that a law tackling demands by criminalising the purchase of sex is an effective means to deal with that exploitation.

That law is in place but it does not cover the situation of a person who seeks sex in return for renting a property. It tackles those who are engaged in the sex trade and prostitution and exploited through prostitution. There is, therefore, a gap and the purchase of sexual services ban would not cover the practice addressed here. Other potentially applicable offences under the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 would not necessarily cover this either.

The very progressive updated definition of consent for which we fought very hard to have included in section 48 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 provides that consent must be "freely and voluntarily" given but it does not address the situation where consent is lacking by reason of situation of exploitation of power or economic dominance. There is a gap and that is why this legislation is important.

The second offence of arranging or facilitating, as the Minister of State has said, may well be covered under section 7 of the Criminal Law Act 1997. However, there is a strong case to be made for explicitly prohibiting advertising of this sort. We have some precedent for that in section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.

I will finish by referring to the context by which we have a need for this legislation. As the tragic murder of Ashling Murphy reminded us, unfortunately and regrettably, women are still especially vulnerable to harassment, abuse, intimidation and exploitation. The practice of sexual exploitation of women and vulnerable persons is not new.

We know it is compounded by class and immigration status and that women from migrant backgrounds are especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation in Ireland today, where we see large numbers of migrant women exploited through the sex trade on a daily basis. It is very important that we recognise that power imbalance and the coercive context in which practices such as that identified in this legislation are carried out.

I will refer to the appalling situation in Ukraine and pay tribute to international and national NGOs such as the sexual exploitation research programme, SERP, in UCD, which has identified very strong risks of women and girls being vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking where they are moving in such large numbers to flee from the Russian bombardment. We know there have been instances of that at the borders of Ukraine and that there is a risk it will happen here. Indeed, there have been some suggestions that it is already happening. That is all the more reason to ensure this legislation is brought through the process speedily and that we see a clear timeframe for its adoption.

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