Shatter Todays Irish Times

[longtipp]

the general perception that all escorts/prostitutes are forced into providing sexual services against their will

If this was the true general perception of escorts/prostitution in Ireland, there would be less service providers in this country. Most men have or will visit a sexworker at some point in their lives also many women have, or will, or would prostitute themselves to make ends meet.
Yes, there is trafficking and pimping, and this needs to be stamped out. The law cannot concentrate on traffickers and pimps if every consenting sexual transaction has to be policed.
The main factor that forces people into sexwork is economic conditions. This is where politicians can make a difference, if they do their jobs right. Prostitution will never be erradicated, as some will always chose it as a career path. But it would be nice to know that it was their free choice, not a need to put bread on the table, uniforms on their children or money in a pimps pocket.

[Morpheus]

Well done Minister Shatter. Lets hope common sense will prevail. Here's hoping the AG will determine that it is unconstitutional. Although I have no idea what the Minister for health has to do with this??? (Given that the WHO recommendations on prostitution have been completely ignored in the consultation process).

Incidentally, in todays Irish Independant the break down of income, expenditure and pay to CEOs of partially Government funded organisations (e.g. Marie Keating Foundation, National Council for the blind, CARI, GOAL, etc..) have been published. No sign of Ruhama or the Immigrant Council. I presume they are claiming divine immunity, like the Sisters of Charity before them.

[warmcome]

Mr Shatter said that, in light of the knowledge deficit about prostitution in Ireland, the “apparent blanket ban” on the purchase of sexual services, as proposed by the committee, raised issues about proportionality. He said a “Swedish-style offence”, meaning the criminalisation of the purchase of sex, would represent a “fundamental departure” from the principles underpinning the existing offence of solicitation in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993.

i bet TORL are disappointed by this, after all that effort.

[the traveller]

I bet they are!! All those lies, half truths and distorted facts and quotes gone to waste. Glad to see the minister understands that the J.O.(C)ke people did not do the job that they were charged to do. This whole exercise has been a very poor advert for parliamentary democracy and the committee system.
First of all the antis tried to creep this in by the back door and when that was defeated the conference was called and all sides of the debate spoke there. A guide was issued by the department which showed all forms of sex work. Submissions were asked for and many on the pro side were sent in but seem to have been totally ignored.The committee, at best, disregarded any speaker that disagreed with the TORL campaign,and, at worst, treated others as a hostile witness! The only way that current sex workers got an invite to appear before the committee was to protest outside the Dail ( Thankyou Miss Devine and LBT) No client was asked to speak although I know several sent in submissions.
But before all that even begun the chairman had already told the world that the Swedish Model was world standard. If you delve slightly deeper than the standard Swedish propaganda you soon realise that this is totally false. They only ever looked at the Nordic solution despite being asked to look at all forms of sex work. And what did they recommend in the end, criminalise the client.What a surprise!
Thank-you Mr Shatter

[Half Man and Half Dildo]

Don't forget that Ruhama also sought to keep the contents of their submission to the Oireachtas committee a secret, too. When this attempt at secrecy failed they then tried to suggest that they had been hacked.

They used tax payer's money to produce their submission and then sought to deny public access to it.

[warmcome]

Don't forget that Ruhama also sought to keep the contents of their submission to the Oireachtas committee a secret, too. When this attempt at secrecy failed they then tried to suggest that they had been hacked.

They used tax payer's money to produce their submission and then sought to deny public access to it.

the new scrutiny on charities will engage them.

[Sexy Sandy 69]

It's refreshing to see that a politician acknowledges that the sex industry is not a 'one size fits all' industry, because of the stigma attached to sex work, very little is known about sex workers/their true circumstances/their reasons behind working as an escort. If politicians/TORL were prepared to listen effectively to what we have to say & to gain an educated insight into our lives/circumstances, they would soon realise that sex workers themselves are against trafficking, & that because we are working in the industry, we have a more rationalised view of what is needed to curb trafficking & to help victims. Just because some people don't understand how we could work as an escort of our own free will, does not mean that we are not entitled to voice our opinions or our basic human right to be listened to fairly.

I've said this many times, the way forward would be a licence system, this would discourage pimps & the Gardaí would know who was legally entitled to work in this country, without much cost to the general public & very little extra work for the Gardai.

Sandy x

[Rachel Divine]

Shatter's statement confirms that 21 of the 23 "child trafficking" cases did not involve prostitution.

http://www.merrionstreet.ie/index.ph...land-for-2012/

[mymann]

Thankfully we have one minister taking a sensible approach to escorts and trafficking.