Originally Posted by
Catriona
Some of you are aware that yesterday I went with a couple of other girls to see Minister Frances Fitzgerald, unfortunately she wasn't interested in listening to our concerns. She thinks it's more important to send a message that you "can't buy girls" rather than to give us safe working conditions as making it difficult to work will prevent people from joining the industry. She didn't want to make sex buying "norminative".
She wanted to make sure people had access to services and doesn't want the new law to prevent that from happening. I tried to push the New Zealand model which has seen reduced demand and also creates a safer working environment.
Generally she was rather patronising of our opinions and wasn't going to budge on the issue as you know sex workers lives are something worth throwing under the bus to send some empty message.
Fitzgerald shows her hand immediately with the facile comment that you ''can't buy girls.'' Too right Frances. You also can't ''buy'' hairdressers, painters or chiropractors, but you can buy their agreed services over a set period of time. The nonsense of ''buying'' someone is straight out of the TORL handbook. As is the emotive reference to ''girls''. So no woman or man is a sex worker -- just girls.
And of course making sex work 'normative' is the kiss of death for any society. Just look at Germany, Netherlands or New Zealand where 'normative' sex work has presumably destroyed the nation. Meanwhile a proud history of censorship and sexual dictatorship from successive theocratic govts, accompanied by endless cover-ups of child rape and sexual abuse has made Ireland into the world leading powerhouse it is today.
It's interesting that Catriona didn't mention trafficking in her OP. I think the public assumed that this was the main driver of criminalisation. Did Frances push this agenda during the meeting or was it more about her personal distaste for sex work?
2014 in Northern Ireland:
Number of reported attacks on sex workers 70
Number of sex trafficking cases ZERO