Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These amendments follow a review of the penalties for prostitution offences. The offences for which I am increasing the penalty in this amendment - organising prostitution, living on the earnings of prostitution and brothel-keeping - are central to the exploitation of vulnerable women and men who find themselves engaged in prostitution. Increasing the penalties to the maximum available for summary convictions reflects the seriousness with which we view these offences. The amendment also introduces a change to the powers of arrest provisions in section 13 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993. The amendment adds the new section 7A of the 1993 Act inserted by this Bill to provide an offence of payment for sexual activity with a prostitute to the list of offences in section 13 for which a person may be arrested without warrant or required to give his or her name and address to a member of An Garda Síochána when asked to do so. This is a necessary power for the Garda to have to ensure the new offence of payment for sexual activity with a prostitute is enforceable.

I want to make points in regard to some of the other amendments which have been proposed by Senators. Amendment No. 31 proposes increasing the penalty for the organisation of prostitution. I support the Senator's proposal. As I have outlined, my own amendment also proposes an increase to the penalty for this offence. The maximum penalty that can be imposed on summary conviction is a class A fine, that is, €5,000, and that is what I am proposing. I do not propose increasing the maximum fine available for conviction or indictment, as proposed by the Senators. Senators may wish to note that the fine was increased by the Fines Act 2010 and stands at €22,220. There is also a significant term of imprisonment available for conviction on indictment.

Amendment Nos. 29 and 30 concern the offence of solicitation. Their effect would be to delete section 7 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 in its entirety and I do not believe that was the intention. That section provides for the offence of soliciting for the purposes of prostitution. Following an amendment to the section, which was agreed by the House on Committee Stage, this Bill will remove men and women offering their services as prostitutes from the offence of soliciting, limiting the offence to buyers and pimps only. Retaining the offence of soliciting for buyers and pimps is in line with the principle of criminalising the purchase of sexual services while ensuring those selling such services do not commit any offence. Therefore, I will not accept the amendments because they would be contrary to what the amendments accepted on Committee Stage in the House which were introduced in this Bill to tackle demand for prostitution and to deal with the extreme trafficking we are seeing across Europe in respect of women. An extremely large proportion of women who are being trafficked are being trafficked for the purpose of prostitution.