Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and express the strong support of the Labour group for this Bill and for the need to secure its passage through the Seanad. I welcome the many groups represented here tonight and the many guests I have here in the Gallery. Many have worked with me and with a whole range of people for many years to secure the passage of legislation like this.

I echo the words of colleagues from across the floor that it is a Bill about human rights and that it seeks to combat and challenge exploitation, particularly of children as we see in group 1 amendments, relating to sexual exploitation of children and provisions on child pornography, and I very much welcome the strengthening of the provisions represented by the amendments. It is also a Bill more generally about sexual exploitation, in particular Part 4, which we will be dealing with in a later group, deals with the new approach, the reform of prostitution law, which I strongly support. Indeed, Senator Mac Lochlainn, who was formerly a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality along with me in the last Dáil and Seanad visited Stockholm with me nearly four years ago in 2012. We met and heard from many people on the front line of operating the Swedish law to which Senator Clifford-Lee has referred. We saw at first hand how that law operates. Our report for the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, published in June 2013, recommended unanimously on a cross-party basis that this reform of the law to criminalise only the purchaser and decriminalise the seller of sexual services would be adopted here in Ireland. I will say more about that when we come to it. I know people in the Gallery from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, from Ruhama, from the Rape Crisis Centre, and from the Turn Off the Red Light coalition have worked for eight years or more on this campaign to see this Bill pass.

Turning to Senator McDowell's points about the timing of the debate, it is unfortunate that colleagues who are concerned to learn more about the Bill and so on did not attend the briefing that I hosted with the Immigrant Council of Ireland two weeks ago on 31 January. It was a briefing about the Bill which some colleagues attended and which sought to put before people some of the principles that are in the Bill, in particular in Part 4 which deals with prostitution. It is important to note that we have quite a lengthy period of time allocated for this debate at Report Stage back from the Dáil. It is much longer than we would normally see on Report amendments back and indeed twice as long as we would normally have on a Second Stage. As one of those who was in the Seanad on the last occasion when we debated this Bill, it was a very lengthy debate, as anyone who was present will recall, and we rehearsed and teased out all the many arguments, particularly on Part 4 of the Bill but indeed about other parts of the Bill too. It had a very full debate subsequently in the Dáil. It was an accident of timing. We had all hoped it would pass under the last Government. The Government fell before it could conclude in the Dáil. It had started in the Seanad, and Senator McDowell and all of us would appreciate justice Bills in particular and all Bills starting in the Seanad, and because of that sequencing we see it coming back to us now.

There is a huge imperative to see it finally passed into law. It will make very important changes to criminal justice procedures, particularly for victims and complainants in sex offences, child complainants and so on. There are some very important provisions. Others have quoted the point made by the Ombudsman for Children as to how important this will be in the practice of trying child sex abuse cases. There is an urgency to get this through. I know we have had an e-mail from the Immigrant Council of Ireland and a range of other groups calling for its swift passage. It is fair that we would have the debate and give time tonight for those who have not been able to contribute in the Chamber to do so previously but I think there is plenty of time to do that. The arguments have been very well rehearsed over many years. We have seen a great deal of public debate in the media in the public domain. We have had many briefings, most recently just two weeks ago, where many of us who were very supportive of the Bill and indeed deeply involved in it over the years had been trying to ensure that everybody was well-informed on it. I simply make those observations and thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his indulgence.