Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and this Bill, there is so much to welcome in it. It is comprehensive and it engages many issues and it is certainly not possible to deal with all the issues in any one speech here. I note the comments of the Minister in relation to sexual offences, the vulnerable and people who are disabled. I look forward to discussing the Minister’s proposals at a later point. I am concerned about the possible impacts of some of Senator Zappone’s proposals in relation to sexual offences and people who are disabled, but I will revisit this matter later. As the Minister is aware, section 176 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 creates an offence of reckless endangerment of children, however there is no specific equivalent relating to reckless endangerment of people who are vulnerable. I would advocate for a criminal sanction, equivalent to the civil tort of misfeasance in public office, specifically in relation to sexual offences against those who are vulnerable. I hope the Minister will comment at a later stage regarding offences where predators target those who are vulnerable.

I will now turn to the main element of the Bill which will make it a criminal offence to purchase sexual services. This country has gone on a journey and even some of the people in these Houses who support this legislation have been on a journey. I remember during my first term in the Seanad putting down motions calling for the criminalisation of the purchase of sex. I put down amendments to the human trafficking legislation which was for too conservative and timid in its approach. It remains my view that by criminalising the purchase of sex we help to make this country a cold house for traffickers of humans which is one of the big arguments in favour of this Bill.

The human trafficking legislation which was brought in some years ago did not go nearly far enough. We had the ridiculous situation that one had to have convicted somebody of engaging in trafficking before anybody could be prosecuted for buying sex from a trafficked person. That was clearly an unsustainable situation. It was doing nothing to protect victims of trafficking and it was certainly doing nothing to protect victims of prostitution. I am glad that we in this country have made the journey and that those who were previously timid now realise that we must follow the Nordic model and criminalise those who would purchase sexual services.

It is farcical and ridiculous to claim in any kind of serious argument that there is some kind of legitimate adult choice going on in the decision to enter prostitution. When one considers the lives, the background, the suffering, the self-esteem issues, the drug addiction - and so many things which blight the lives of those in prostitution - it is clear that it is not a profession that anybody would willingly or freely enter into in the same way that we would encourage young women to enter other areas of the workforce and to train up. It simply is not an industry like anything else. It is a sordid industry, one that corrupts people and entices them through the supposedly respectable front door of strip clubs and gentlemen’s clubs. In reality, in the back room, there is the direst exploitation of people and the deprivation of their human rights.

It is one of the great tragedies of recent times that Amnesty International has allowed itself to become corrupted on this issue. It has called for the decriminalising of prostitution based on a human rights principle of consensual sexual conduct between adults being entitled to protection from state interference. I believe it is not too adventurous to say that Amnesty International, among others, has been corrupted by people who have a vested interest in the sex industry. They do not make some kind of intellectual argument. Organisations like that go wrong and Amnesty has gone wrong in several areas recently. Tragically it has sullied its great reputation, probably to the point where some alternative human rights advocate is needed to take centre stage to promote human rights and human dignity in an authentic and inclusive way. Organisations like Amnesty International do not just go around because they meddle with ideas and then come up with bizarre theories, they go around because of the people who entice them, get involved, infiltrate them and seek to make the organisations pursue their agenda. They claim to agree with the approach taken by the German Government in 2002 when it decriminalised the sex industry. By registering, prostitutes were supposed to get more access to benefits but in reality the prostitutes did not register and there are now mega-brothels in Germany. According to one advocate against violence against women, the German situation is deeply harmful. The reality is that the women are sex workers and the men are clients who can ring up and order a women like a take-away. This is the tragic scenario happening in this world.

The Government has taken the right direction by disregarding the advice of Amnesty and the advice of my esteemed colleague, Senator Norris, who must be aware of the shambles in the Netherlands because of its approach of decriminalisation. It is a welcome step that has been taken here. It is a step in favour of human rights and the dignity of men and women and I hope it will pass speedily through these Houses.