Prostitution Consultation Update

[Patricia]

http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/...e-8688-en.html

[Banjaxed]

Thanks for that update, Patricia. For those who mightn't have time to follow all the links and download the pdf, the following is the most important information:

The Committee will consider these written submissions and may decide to invite a number of contributors to public hearings should it feel that this is necessary.

Please note that recording of all submissions/communications will be undertaken by the Clerk to the Committee and the Secretariat and therefore submissions should not be sent to individual members of the Committee.

If you wish to make a written submission, please do so, preferably by electronic means to the
Clerk to the Committee at: justiceanddefence@oir.ie

As a general guideline, submissions should consist of a separate document accompanied by a covering letter. Submissions should be presented as concisely as possible. The covering letter should contain your name and contact details (phone number and postal address and, if available, an email address).

If the submission is on behalf of an organisation, you should indicate your position in the organisation. You should also indicate if you would be prepared to appear in public session at any Committee meeting.

The main document should contain the following information:

(i) A brief introduction, for example, explaining your area of expertise;

(ii) Any factual information that you have to offer from which the Committee might be able to draw conclusions, or which could be put to other parties for their reactions;

(iii) Any recommendations to the Committee which should be as specific as possible and should be summarised at the end of the document; and

(iv) An executive summary of the main points made in the submission, if your document is more than 10 pages long.

As already indicated, submissions should, where possible, be made by electronic means and it is not necessary to also forward a hard copy of your submission.

Making a submission is a public process

The Committee is not obliged to accept your document once it has been submitted, nor is it obliged to publish any or all of the submission if it has been accepted. However, the operations of a parliament are a public process, and you should be aware that any submissions made to a Committee may be published either as part of a Committee report, or separately, if the Committee decides to do so.

[LaBelleThatcher]

Just spoke to them and I am awaiting clarification of what provisions can be made for anonimity.

[LaBelleThatcher]

Any submissions made under your own names will not be subject to the freedom of information act, and the information will stay with the committee.

Further options for anonymous submissions may be sorted out tomorrow, but, in the meanwhile, there is one definate option:

Anyone who is willing to make submission under their real name can include any amount of anonymous submissions as part of that.

I have already given my real name to the Department and I am willing to convey submissions from either ladies or clients. I hope one or two other people will emerge as I am uncomfortable with the idea of everything being in my hands (power corrupts, I would rather not find out how much it can corrupt me!) .

[Morpheus]

I think numbers count Eileen - so I will definitely be making a submission. I think the more of us that do it the better, given that we are up against well funded governmental agencies and NGOs. And you can be sure there will be no end of submissions from them.

The bit about giving one's name, address and phone number - has put my nose out of joint a bit! But I plan to be "creative" in that regard.

As regarding the submission itself, I won't be writing a thesis and plan to keep it simple. The consultation document has more than enough info. I will just outline parts of the document I support.

The main tenants of my submission:
1) will be to oppose any further criminalization for any escorting related acitivity,

2)and suggestions to decriminalize certain aspects - eg. advertising, definition of brothels, etc



There is a list of questions in the consultation document and I plan to pick out the ones I feel are important and answer them accordingly.

Now to get all that down before the deadline in August!

[Morpheus]

P.S.for those who haven't checked out the above link;


Submission deadline is Friday 11th of August 2012 at 5pm.

[Half Man and Half Dildo]

“The Sexual Offences Act 1993 undoubtedly needs to be updated to take account of an ever more globalised and connected world. Any future legislation will need to reflect enhancements to communications technology, including internet and mobile devices, as well as increased mobility across borders.”

Seems like they have their minds made up already.....

And it's no suprise to see Ivana Bacik, Ronan Mullen and Katherine Zappone are on the commitee, too.

[Banjaxed]

Seems like they have their minds made up already.....

And it's no suprise to see Ivana Bacik, Ronan Mullen and Katherine Zappone are on the commitee, too.

Indeed, those were the first two worrying details I noticed. Hardly going to be a balanced view or objective discussion of the submissions considering the behaviour of some of those particular Senator's previously on the issues.

[Morpheus]

Seems like they have their minds made up already.....

And it's no suprise to see Ivana Bacik, Ronan Mullen and Katherine Zappone are on the commitee, too.

Indeed, those were the first two worrying details I noticed. Hardly going to be a balanced view or objective discussion of the submissions considering the behaviour of some of those particular Senator's previously on the issues.

However, the actual consultation document (which was compiled by the Dept of Justice) is very balanced and I think actually gives more info to build a case for less legislation. We have to live in hope inspite of those on the panel.

[Half Man and Half Dildo]

However, the actual consultation document (which was compiled by the Dept of Justice) is very balanced and I think actually gives more info to build a case for less legislation. We have to live in hope inspite of those on the panel.

Fingers crossed.