Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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As the Minister will be aware, Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 set out new criminal penalties on the purchase of sexual services from sex workers, where the buyer of sex is criminalised but the sex worker is not, sometimes referred to as the Nordic model.In response to concerns that have been raised on the impact of this model on the safety of sex workers in jurisdictions where it has been implemented, the then Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, agreed to a report on the operation of the new provisions incorporating the number of arrests and convictions and an assessment of their impact on the safety and well-being of sex workers. That section was commenced in March 2017, meaning that the report will be delivered to the Oireachtas hopefully before March 2020.

My first question is, therefore, what progress has been made in relation to the preparation of this report? What is the process of the Department in assembling the information set out in subsection (2)? What level of detail or analysis will be undertaken and how long will the report be? As the Minister will be aware, the Nordic model has been criticised internationally by organisations representing sex workers and human rights bodies like Amnesty International, on the ground that it puts women involved in an even more vulnerable position, as it forces them to rely on law enforcement for their safety, when there may be low levels of trust in the criminal justice system or where the sex worker is a migrant, there are fears around the impact on immigration status. Sex workers surveyed in Norway have even said that one only calls the police when one thinks one is about to die, and a recent Government report in Northern Ireland found that it led to a spike in demand for sex work rather than a decrease. Based on what we know, it is likely the same issues are being reproduced here in Ireland. The increased penalty for brothel keeping in the 2017 Act, where a brothel is defined as "two or more sex workers", is forcing women to make themselves more vulnerable by working alone or risking prosecution.

In June of this year, we saw two migrant women from Kildare receive significant custodial sentences under these provisions. When this is compared to the extraordinarily low number of client arrests and prosecutions, it is clear that this law is having a disproportionate impact on the female sex workers rather than the intended target: the buyers of sex. I am sure the Minister will agree that these are very concerning developments, and they call into question the effectiveness of these provisions, especially when those who support them frequently invoke their positive impact on sex worker safety internationally. It places even greater pressure on this report process to properly analyse the law considering these developments.

My second question is, therefore, if the law is being found to have a negative impact on sex worker safety, will this report be considering options for law reform to improve safety and well-being? Will the Minister be considering alternatives to the Nordic model of buyer criminalisation as a result? At the very least, will the Minister consider repealing the draconian provisions on brothel keeping and make them fit-for-purpose, rather than just forcing vulnerable migrant women to work alone?

I know in responses to parliamentary questions on this issue that the Minister will be engaging with An Garda Síochána, the HSE and civil society groups and that he will be funding research in this area. What is the methodology that will be used for the research? Will the Minister commit to it being independent and based solely on the evidence, excluding stereotypes and misconceptions of sex workers? Will it place the voice of sex workers themselves at its centre and not just rely on testimony from An Garda Síochána and civil society organisations?

I would appreciate a response to these specific questions. I am deeply concerned by the impact of this law and believe that it is actively causing harm to extremely vulnerable women. I hope this report and doing it properly is a significant priority in the Minister's Department, and I look forward to hearing his response.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Ruane. I call the Minister, Deputy Flanagan.

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Ruane for raising this important matter. Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 provided for two new offences: paying for sexual activity with a prostitute, and paying for sexual activity with a trafficked person. The Act also removes those who offer their services as a prostitute from the existing offences of soliciting for the purposes of prostitution. A fundamental focus in the introduction to this legislation was to ensure that women working in the prostitution sector would have increased protection and face no repercussions for reporting crimes related to their work. Senator Ruane will be aware that Part 4 of the 2017 Act specifies that not later than three years after its commencement, the Minister for Justice and Equality shall cause a report to be prepared on the operation of section 7A of the Act and cause this report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas. As the Act was commenced in March 2017, review of Part 4 will formally commence in early 2020 after three years of its operation.

I appreciate the wide interest which there may be in the matter of this review. My Department is at present undertaking the groundwork for the preparation of this report, including to the funding of relevant research.My Department will also seek submissions from interested parties when the review commences. Indeed, Senator Ruane has raised a number of questions. By way of reply at this stage, more detailed information on the approach to be adopted, including the means for consultation with stakeholders, will be announced when it is available, and the report when complete will also be published in due course. Senator Ruane may be interested to hear of the two research projects being funded under the Dormant Accounts Fund, which we anticipate will feed into the review of the Act.

The first project is by the Sexual Exploitation Research Project, which is under the school of social policy, social work and social justice at UCD. That aims to provide empirical data on the experience of women in the commercial sex trade and the response of the criminal justice system in the context of the new law. This project draws significantly on information held by the HSE anti-human trafficking team and work already done under an earlier but much smaller joint research project during 2018, carried out by the HSE and the anti-human trafficking unit of my Department.

The second project is by Gender, Orientation, Sexual Health and HIV, GOSHH, which is a charity based in Limerick city. The project aims to explore the current level of awareness and know-how about the criminalisation of purchasing sex legislation among survival sex workers. It also aims to design an evidence-based ethical approach to research and working with survival sex workers.

Senator Ruane will also be aware of the second National Strategy in Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2016-2021. As Members of the House will be aware, the strategy is a whole-of-Government response to domestic and sexual violence and contains a range of actions to be implemented by Government departments and agencies and includes a monitoring committee, including membership from the non-governmental organisation sector. I anticipate as the review gets under way and as it proceeds, the monitoring committee will be centrally involved in overseeing its progress and examining its recommendations.

Indeed, more generally, I take this opportunity to note that as part of the transformation programme in my Department over the past year, a new criminal justice policy function has been created. Within this function, a community safety applied policy unit has been established with responsibility for policy on the full range of issues that relate to victims and community safety matters within the criminal justice system. The pulling together of all matters relating to victims, including human trafficking, sexual violence and support for witnesses within trials will ensure that dedicated time and space will be available to enable complex issues such as this to be appropriately examined, ultimately leading to a more robust and evidence-based policy in this and other fields that best protect the position of victims, including vulnerable women as has been evidenced by the contribution of Senator Ruane.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Flanagan. Senator Ruane, would you like to ask a supplementary question?

Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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I thank the Minister for his very detailed response. This is more an observation as we move forward when speaking of the monitoring committee. The space in respect of representation for sex workers in Ireland is dominated by organisations and NGOs in support of the Nordic model. This is more about putting down the marker to ensure those groups that are not often represented in those wider gender conversations, such as Sex Workers Alliance or anybody that is working in the sex industry, find an avenue somehow into the process of developing this report in terms of the impact on them. The Migrants Rights Council has been very involved over the years as well in terms of its role and the State's role in making sure that migrant women who are in fear in respect of immigration are in a position to come forward.

The brothel keeping laws really prohibit that, and as part of the report's development, we really need to look at what we mean by "a brothel". Maybe we need to define what a brothel is because more than one woman, or two women living in a house together as sex workers, is not necessarily a brothel in the terms we all believe a brothel to be.We have an industry-led idea of what a brothel is. I believe this should form an important part of the discussions in the Department. I have had a positive experience with the new policy team in recent weeks in respect of other justice Bills and so I look forward to their involvement on this report. In the coming weeks, once the Minister has more of an idea of what it looks like, it would be great if he could share it with my office. This would allow me to disseminate some of the information to some of the smaller groups working in this area.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Minister, would you like to respond?

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I would. I accept the invitation to engage further from Senator Ruane. I would be keen to hear from the Senator and I would be keen to share with the Senator any information that she and I believe might be helpful.

This is a complex matter. I very much appreciate the interest of Senator Ruane and her contribution to the issue. As I said earlier, at present we are undertaking the groundwork for the preparation of the report, including the matter of funding for an appropriate level of research. We will be seeking submissions from interested parties once the review commences. I anticipate the monitoring committee will have a central involvement in the process and in assessing the issues as matters proceed. Of course it will play a role in any recommendation, guidance or advices that might be included in the matter of the reporting.

I very much appreciate the interests involved here. I acknowledge that there are differing views from different stakeholders. I am not going to prejudice or in any way pre-empt the modalities for outcomes of the review but I will commit to engagement with Senator Ruane in particular. Indeed, if there are other Senators who wish to engage or if the House, by way of motion or otherwise, wishes to hear further from me on this matter I would be happy to engage. I suggest, however, that were the issue to be raised with me in January or in the new year when matters are more advanced by my Department, I certainly will update the House at that point if it is deemed appropriate in the circumstances.