Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice hearings at 2pm

[Banjaxed]

There are so many contradictions there and a lack of actual figures. For example, APT claim that 75% of prostitutes began as children, however Banardos state that half of prostitutes begin as children. Also, Sarah Benson states that regulating the sex industry is a 'Utopian' view, however, when she started reaming off her points, I thought the same about Ruhama's wish-list of policies.

The Anti-Trafficking Manager also felt that Legal Aid should not be available to people arrested for purchasing sex, but a good point was made that people are innocent until proven guilty, but I was quite shocked when she suggested that most clients are in a profession and Legal Aid shouldn't be an issue anyway. This contradicts Ruhama's report that 1 in 15 men drive a profitable trade.

The social scientists state that even after ten years of research, there is virtually no knowledge base regarding the sex industry, that conclusions are generalised and that there is no evidence to support that the Swedish model will be applicable to Ireland, adding that in the past two years, there has been lots of critical literature of the Swedish model.

Personally, I do think that there needs to be more conclusive studies with empirical results to support any legislation, be it pro or anti-prostitution, however in the meantime, those support groups should be working to help victims of the sex industry with the help of Government funding without prejudice.

The Legal Aid argument is redundant anyway as it has been held that for minor offences where there is no possibility of imprisonment that it is not required to be provided if the accused can otherwise get a fair trial. ICI's contention that any fine should be of a high nature, to "the rate that a man demands unprotected sex at" was also quite shocking for me. She also seemed to totally miss Deputy Mac Lochlainn's point in that it undermines the constitutionally protected presumption of innocence for ANYONE accused of the purchase of sex who is in wrong place at wrong time, not just actual clients.

The sheer lack of research is appalling, and yet these 69 organisations (no irony or pun there) are determined to ram through a legislative model with no benchmark to measure against, a complete disregard for those (who they admit exist) are sex workers by choice, in effect pulling the carpet out from under them because I am not sure how women can straddle both fences (i.e. enjoy legal protections while being exposed and discredited with clients and potentially never be able to work again in sex work should she come forward to report a crime against her due to notoriety with the gardai).