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

Sections 20 and 21 provide two offences for the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services. The first is a general offence of paying to engage in sexual activity with a prostitute and the second is the more serious offence of paying to engage in sexual activity with a trafficked person. These provisions are the result of considerable and extensive public consultation by the Department of Justice and Equality but primarily by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, which recommended similar proposals in 2013. The matter has already been the subject of considerable debate both inside and outside these Houses and even beyond the State.

In deciding on these provisions, the Minister considered all sides of the debate and the experience of those states that have introduced similar measures and those that have addressed prostitution in a different way. The purpose of introducing these provisions is primarily to target the trafficking and sexual exploitation of persons through prostitution. Both the Council of Europe and European Parliament have recognised the effectiveness of the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services as a tool in the fight against human trafficking. However, even to leave aside this unquestionable objective, there is undoubtedly evidence of wider exploitation of persons involved in prostitution outside those trafficked, such as those coerced or otherwise forced through circumstances to engage in the activity.