Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On Second Stage, the Minister informed the House that she would introduce amendments to Part 3 of the Bill relating to the purchase of sexual services that further decriminalised the women and men involved in prostitution by removing those who offered sexual services from the existing offences of soliciting and loitering for the purpose of prostitution. Amendment No. 26 makes the necessary provision while amendment No. 30 ensures that no inadvertent consequences may arise from it.

Section 7 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 criminalises a person who, in a street or public place, solicits or importunes another person for the purposes of prostitution. Section 8 of that Act creates an offence where a person is loitering in order to solicit or importune another person for the purpose of prostitution and fails to leave that place when directed to do so by a garda. "Soliciting" is defined to include all parties whether male or female, prostitute or client or third party, such as pimp, and includes curb crawling.

There have been a number of calls, including from organisations associated with the Turn Off the Red Light campaign, for the removal of those selling sexual services from these offences. The effect of such a change will be that only those people who solicit the sexual services of others, that is, the buyers and pimps, will be prosecuted for the solicitation and loitering offences under the 1993 Act.

The primary rationale for decriminalising the sale of sexual services is that those offering the services involved in prostitution are highly vulnerable, often from impoverished backgrounds and frequently with addiction and other issues. It is often the case that those involved in on-street prostitution are among the most vulnerable and marginalised within an already vulnerable group. Retaining criminalisation for solicitation is to penalise this high-risk group. Decriminalisation will also allow people to report violence experienced on the street without fear of prosecution and encourage them to seek appropriate support services. The decriminalisation of on-street prostitution will bring the Irish approach further into line with that of Northern Ireland and the Nordic approach generally.

Amendment No. 26 deletes the current paragraph (a), which reads, "offers his or her services as a prostitute to another person", from the definition of "solicits or importunes for the purposes of prostitution" in section 1(2) of the 1993 Act. The effect of the amendment is to remove the persons offering sexual services from the offences under sections 7 and 8 of that Act of soliciting and loitering, respectively, in a public place for the purposes of prostitution. These offences will still apply to any person who solicits a prostitute, that is, the buyer or pimp, or any person who loiters in a public place for the purpose of soliciting a prostitute.

The inclusion of this amendment by itself gives rise to concerns that the Garda would be left with no means of combating any public nuisance if sexual offences were to be offered, for example, in a residential area. There is also a concern that the provision could be exploited by criminal gangs or others. Amendment No. 30 addresses these concerns. Section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 provides that a garda may direct a person who is behaving in certain ways, for example, intoxicated, threatening or abusive, to stop behaving in that way or immediately leave the specific area. It is an offence under section 8 to fail to follow such a direction.This amendment will add loitering for the purpose of offering services as a prostitute to the behaviours subject to a direction under section 8. The effect of these proposed amendments will be that on-street prostitution will not itself be an offence, but the Garda will still have the power to move on from a public place when necessary a person or persons offering sexual services. The remaining amendments in this group have been proposed by Senators and I will respond to them after they have been moved.