Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Act is not responsible for any increase in the level of violence. What we do see is that where prostitution is addressed in the Swedish manner, that is, by criminalising the purchase of sex, there are better police reporting structures for those engaged in prostitution and reduced criminalisation, which is the purpose behind the legislation we introduced. That is what happened in Sweden and what we want to see happening here. The Garda needs to step up its policing of the criminalisation of the purchase of sex by focusing on the clients. That is the idea behind this feminist legislation.