Katherine Zappone (Independent)

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House and Senator Power for raising the issue as an Adjournment matter and sharing her time. As Senator Power has identified, and as the Minister of State is aware, the Independent group tabled a motion on this issue in October 2011 to criminalise the purchase of sex in order to curb prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, whom the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, represents, has said that offences with regard to prostitution, as they exist on the Statute Book, can be committed by the prostitute, the client or a third party, for example, a pimp. It is also an offence to organise prostitution, coerce or compel a person to be a prostitute, knowingly live off the earnings of a prostitute, or keep or manage a brothel, yet we are faced with the graphic evidence, already referred to by Senator Power, on the RTÉ documentary "Profiting for Prostitution" that these laws are clearly inadequate. This documentary mirrors Irish research on the issue.

In response to the matter the Minister, Deputy Shatter, said he would hold a public consultation. I have been in touch with his office a couple of times. On 20 December he sent me a letter to say that he hoped to announce a consultation exercise as soon as possible in January and that his office had almost completed a paper on the consultation.

I have three questions I hope the Minister of State can answer. Like my colleague, Senator Power, does the Minister intend to bring forward legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex? What we really want to know is should it be the law, following which we can then consider the legal and constitutional implications? When will the consultation process begin on this issue? I also recall that the Attorney General has a legal opinion on legislating for the criminalising of the purchase of sex. Would the Minister, Deputy Shatter, consider making this information available? As Senator Power said, the status quo is not working. The policy of out of sight, out of mind - which underlines our current laws - is extremely damaging.