Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Senator will be able to speak soon. Nobody has been prosecuted in Northern Ireland for this offence yet. The only good it has achieved anywhere is to render the customer liable to criminal prosecution. If members think that is a good thing, they must remember that it carries with it, necessarily, the problem of blackmail. It must do so. We are dealing with frequently exploited young people who, from now on, if they go to someone's home and commit a sexual act, will know that they have that person over a barrel, so to speak. They can, merely by revealing what happened in that home, bring upon that person a conviction or at least a summons to the District Court to face a charge of paying for sex. This is wrong. I know that Senator Bacik published her report-----