David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, I am directly addressing my reasons for refusing to consent to the passage of this section. One Irish prostitute noted that the new law will make it more difficult to find apartments and hotels in which to work. She expressed concern that workers who are already established may find it easier as they already have a network, while new girls will be more likely to put themselves in danger as the industry goes further underground. Another is convinced that many sex workers will be driven into poverty and have to rely on benefits. Since the Cathaoirleach does not want the voices of these women to be heard, I offer those comments by two women as a representative selection and will omit the comments of the other 12 or 14 women. If Members ever want to hear the other statements, I will be happy to show them.

I turn now to the marketing campaign surrounding the alleged success of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act. It is claimed the law has reduced prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes, had a deterrent effect on clients and changed social attitudes. Those claims were most recently stated in the 2010 evaluation of the Act. At least an evaluation was done. Even the Swedes did that much, but the Minister of State is not prepared to do the same because he is afraid of what he might find.

The problem with these claims is that if they are carefully investigated, they do not appear to be supported by the available facts from research. As soon as the official evaluation was published, it was criticised from several directions, with that criticism focusing primarily on the lack of scientific rigour. The evaluation did not, it was noted, have an objective starting point since the terms of reference given were that the purchase of sex must continue to be illegal. There was no discussion of the facts. Illegality was the starting point and the facts had to be found to fit that or, rather, the facts had to be concealed and buried. There was not even a satisfying definition of prostitution.

The evaluation of the law did not take into account ideology, method, sources and possible confounding factors. There were inconsistencies, contradictions, haphazard referencing and irrelevant or flawed comparisons. According to the academic report by Dodillet and Östergren, the Sex Purchase Act "was introduced by feminist policymakers who argued that prostitution is a form of male violence against women". In other words, it was ideologically driven. The report by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice talks about a general problem with statistics from Sweden, describing them as "highly uncertain". This is one Government commenting upon another.

There is not the slightest scrap of international evidence that the so-called Swedish model has reduced trafficking into that country. In fact, the UK and Ireland scored better than Sweden in a recent survey on global slavery. To be clear, we are scoring better than Sweden on this marker after some ten years of the operation of the new law in that country. That tells us how effective it has been. The finding is somewhat odd given the claims made by the proponents of the Swedish model that it has reduced trafficking for sexual exploitation. In addition, there is a general ignoring of the New Zealand example, which has been successful.

Between 2009 and June 2014, the total number of suspected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation encountered by the PSNI was 81. The number of confirmed victims was 26 over that five-year period.This is a serious and dreadful situation, but it is hardly the epidemic to justify this massive campaign.