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

It is important to put on the record that the provisions in the Bill which criminalise the purchase of sexual services have been very much informed by data and evidence. I have read around the issue and have met with those on different sides of this debate. I refer the Senators, and Senator Norris in particular, to the Oireachtas committee report on the matter to see the wide range of research which was presented and submitted to that committee. All of the research, in support of and against criminalisation, was referenced in the report and formed part of the committee's deliberations. The research has formed part of the work we have done in the Department of Justice on this issue. This has been worked on since 2012 so there was time to look at the various reports and to see what is done in other countries. Northern Ireland has recently taken the same approach that we are suggesting here.

It is important to look at precisely what is being done in the legislation. Sections 20 and 22 provide two offences for the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services. The first provision is a general offence of paying to engage in sexual activity with a prostitute. The second is the more serious offence of paying to engage in sexual activity with a trafficked person. I have already put on the record of the House the very serious issues and the worldwide increase in the trafficking of vulnerable people, including women, for the purposes of prostitution. Ireland is no exception to that as we know from the experience of so many of the front-line organisations who work directly with the women concerned and who have been doing so for many years. We know this also from the investigative work. I praise RTE and "Prime Time" for its investigative work, and the work of other documentary makers, in examining the experiences of trafficked women into Ireland who are brought to various towns around the State and exploited sexually. These trafficked persons often do not even know what country they are in and certainly do not know what town they are in. As Senator van Turnhout has said, there are very disturbing reports of young girls being exploited sexually and who have been trafficked into Ireland. That is the reality of the situation we are confronting.

The Council of Europe and the European Parliament have recognised the effectiveness of the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services as a tool in the fight against human trafficking. It is important to put that on the record. Equally, there is much wider evidence of the exploitation of persons involved in prostitution outside of those who are trafficked, such as those who have been coerced or otherwise forced, through circumstances, to engage in that activity. That also needs to be put onto the record, including the fact there is a huge amount of exploitation in prostitution and the exploitation takes so many different forms. The evidence is strongly emerging that there are very serious criminal gangs involved in both trafficking and in the delivery of prostitution services. There is very little control for many of the women who are involved. I have listened to Sex Workers Alliance Ireland and what it had to say. I have also met with the rapporteur for trafficking and exploitation from Sweden who visited Ireland last year and who gave me the up to date experience of Sweden. I would like to put some of that on the record of the House as a response to the debate on these amendments.

First, I will turn to the Norwegian experience and its Government report from August 2015 on evaluations of the law. I will now put on the record the main findings from that publication. The ban on purchasing sexual services has reduced demand for prostitution and thus contributed to reducing the extent of prostitution in Norway. The enforcement of the law, in combination with the laws against trafficking and pimping, makes Norway a less attractive country for prostitution based trafficking. The report does not find any evidence of more violence against prostitutes after the ban on buying sex entered into force. Young men in Norway, and I believe this is an extremely important point, have changed their attitudes towards buying sex. This is an important normative effect given the ambivalence we have seen over decades regarding prostitution. Interviews with police forces indicate that the law has had a normative effect on people's behaviour. Despite a lack of accurate data on the size of the market for prostitution, either before or after 2010, estimates of the current market show a decline in the demand for prostitution after the law was introduced. The reduced market size and an increase in police enforcement have made Norway a less attractive place for human traffickers. That is a report from August 2015.

I will now turn to the official Swedish Government report. I met with the Swedish rapporteur on trafficking, Kajsa Wahlberg, who has extensive first hand experience in these matters. Ms Wahlberg represented the views of the Swedish Government to me and her own direct experience. We also have reference to the evaluation done in Sweden, headed by a judge of the Supreme Court there, which evaluated how the ban on the purchase of sexual services was working in practice in Sweden. The starting point for that inquiry was that the purchase of sexual services would continue to be criminalised. The report, which was submitted to the Swedish Government, said that street, indoor or online prostitution had not increased since the introduction of the ban and that the ban on the purchase of sexual services acts as a barrier to the establishment of organised criminal networks involved in such crimes in Sweden. This is very important as we do not want to see criminal gangs coming in to Ireland and establishing criminal networks supporting the development of prostitution.

The Swedish report also found that the ban had strong support in Sweden and had a deterrent effect on sex purchasers. The inquiry finally concluded that criminalisation had not adversely affected persons being exploited in prostitution. Clearly there is a role for supporting those organisations who work with women involved in prostitution, in making sure that they can reach out to these women and the women can avail of the services. These services have been offered for many years by organisations such as Ruhama when there was little support for that type of service. The Swedish inquiry indicated that the ban on the purchase of sexual services had the intended effect and that it is an important instrument-----