Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome amendment No. 28 which restates the core principle in section 20 of the original version of the Bill to criminalise the purchase of sex. It also decriminalises the sale of sex and the person, usually a woman, engaged in prostitution. Senator Norris failed to take that on board in his polemic against the amendment and against the policy at issue. The policy, so clearly outlined by the Minister and other Members on Second Stage, is that of tackling demand by decriminalising the seller but criminalising the purchaser, the client. This is a policy the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality endorsed unanimously in its 2013 report.

Senator Norris is so carried away with his own rhetoric that he missed that key point. This is very much an evidence-based legislative reform. It is based on evidence the committee heard, on a visit it made to Sweden and reports it read. It is also based on a recognition of the reality of prostitution and of the exploitation involved in prostitution, rather than on some romanticised or rose-tinted view of prostitution as a freely entered into contract between two equal individuals. The reality is very far from that.

Senator Norris made some outrageous claims about the proportionate effect of this amendment and of the provision in section 20 suggesting-----