Labour Party women's conference: The Labour Party women's conference has called for the decriminalisation of prostitutes, but not the legalisation of prostitution.
A motion from the Dublin Central constituency, where there are a reported three "red light" districts, describes prostitution as a form of violence against women.
Instead of the legalisation of prostitution, the conference at the Mansion House, Dublin, demanded the "strengthening of prosecution of those who profit from and avail of the services".
Ms Sinéad Ní Chulacháin, the incoming chairwoman of Labour Women, told the conference that five prostitutes had been killed in Dublin in the past four years but there had not been a single prosecution or conviction.
She said that instead the focus had been on the prosecution of women as prostitutes. Ms Ní Chulacháin said there were increasing numbers of women and girls being trafficked into Ireland and forced into prostitution.
"It is the men - the pimps and traffickers who enslave them," she said.
The chairwoman pointed out that women were the "meat" in the sandwich and that through this proposal the action would be against the two other sides, the traffickers/pimps and the clients.
One delegate said that many women were forced into prostitution for economic circumstances or to try and feed a heroin addiction.
"If a prostitute goes to the gardaí and says 'my pimp is beating me up', the guard will say 'are you admitting to being a prostitute?' and the woman is prosecuted," the conference was told.
There was some argument on the issue and a number of delegates expressed confusion about the proposal and called for it to be deferred.
One delegate suggested that by decriminalising prostitution, the situation "is just going to go from one extreme to the other".
However, the conference insisted on a vote and the motion was endorsed by a majority on a show of hands with about six of the 50 or so delegates opposed to the measure.
Ms Ní Chulacháin said afterwards that the wording of the motion, was that proposed by Ruhama the organisation that works with prostitutes. She said it was based on the model that applies in Sweden.
The Scandinavian country adopted the controversial measure to decriminalise prostitution in 1999 which effectively makes it legal for a woman to sell sex but illegal for a man to buy it.
The Swedish parliament voted in the measure as an attempt to counter the trafficking of women by dealing with the use of women as prostitutes.
According to media reports, police in Stockholm say the law has reduced by more than two-thirds, the number of prostitutes being operated in the Swedish capital and there have been 754 convictions since 1999.
Under the 1861 Offences against the State Act the maximum penalty against a prostitute is 20 years penal servitude. The maximum sentence for clients is five years.
