Posted on December 6, 2014 by Wendy Lyon
If you read this blog, you’re probably aware that Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald recently published the General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014. And you’re probably also aware that the bill creates a new offence of purchasing sexual services.
But what does the bill not contain? Here are a few notable omissions:
- No decriminalisation of sex workers.
- No alternative income supports for sex workers.
- No changes to laws that bar employment of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants and that limit the work options open to many of the documented.
- No changes to Garda surveillance powers.
- No custodial sentence for paying for sex.
- No provision for review.