New law could criminalise men for buying sex

[John Shaft]

The law, if it comes to pass, won't affect the escorts; it's the customers who are being targeted. It is being introduced to close off a perceived loophole in the law and to give greater powers to Gardai. As we know, paying for sex is not actually illegal in Ireland right now, even though most ordinary people probably think that it is.
I wouldn't see huge cause for concern. Even if the law comes in there will still be a strong burden of proof on Gardai. Unless someone is caught handing over money, the Gardai won't have a case that will stand up in court. And they don't have the resources to effectively police it anyway. It will be a bit like possession of small amounts of cannibis - technically illegal but not something the Gardai will be really bothered enforcing. Expect to see nothing more than a handful of token arrests to placate the moral majority and to show that "the new legislation is working".
As long as punters visit trusted and reputable escorts they should be ok and the business of these ladies shouldn't suffer.

It would be interesting to see the statistics for the number of prosecutions in Sweden, Norway and Iceland since the laws were introduced in those countries.

[Rodney69]

The law, if it comes to pass, won't affect the escorts; it's the customers who are being targeted. It is being introduced to close off a perceived loophole in the law and to give greater powers to Gardai. As we know, paying for sex is not actually illegal in Ireland right now, even though most ordinary people probably think that it is.
I wouldn't see huge cause for concern. Even if the law comes in there will still be a strong burden of proof on Gardai. Unless someone is caught handing over money, the Gardai won't have a case that will stand up in court. And they don't have the resources to effectively police it anyway. It will be a bit like possession of small amounts of cannibis - technically illegal but not something the Gardai will be really bothered enforcing. Expect to see nothing more than a handful of token arrests to placate the moral majority and to show that "the new legislation is working".
As long as punters visit trusted and reputable escorts they should be ok and the business of these ladies shouldn't suffer.

It would be interesting to see the statistics for the number of prosecutions in Sweden, Norway and Iceland since the laws were introduced in those countries.

well said John Shaft, you should be called John Swift :-)
As always the focus and reason for this legislation is to target the negative aspect of the business. The trafficking of women by pimps and of course this should not be tolerated. But it assumes all escorts are forced into this business. What about the good, honest, trust worthy independent women.

It will still be very hard for the gardai who are under resourced to police it.

But if the legislation does get passed, I'm sure it will change the behaviour of a lot of clients and make them think twice.