LEGISLATION around prostitution needs to be reviewed to ensure it is sufficiently robust and flexible to address criminality in the modern-day sex trade Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said.
Mr Shatter was speaking at the opening of a day-long conference on the future direction of prostitution legislation held in Dublin at the weekend
Opening the conference Mr Shatter said, under current Irish legislation “it is not illegal, in itself to sell sex. Generally, it is not illegal to purchase sex either”.
Although he noted that prostitution “has existed since time immemorial” he added that the main reason behind the current review of Irish prostitution law was because the nature of prostitution had changed in recent years.
“Prostitution is no longer the street-based activity it was when the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 was enacted.
“Since then, it is fair to say that prostitution has largely, though not exclusively, moved indoors and the development of the internet has resulted in aspects of it being substantially web based.
“It is important therefore, to review our current legislation to ensure it is sufficiently robust and flexible to address criminality in the environment in which prostitution operates today,” he said.
Mr Shatter posed 14 “key questions” to delegates including whether the law should criminalise those who pay for sex and if a ban on the purchase of sexual services might drive prostitution further underground making life more dangerous for sex workers.
The conference heard wide-ranging submissions from organisations including Ruhama, the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland as well as public health representatives and academics.
It also heard from Det Insp Simon Haggstrom of the Prostitution Unit of the Stockholm Police Force in Sweden, where the purchase of sex has been criminalised since 1999, and Jack Verbruggen from the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice. Prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands in 2000.
Mr Shatter said the conference was an “an essential element, of what must be a balanced, fair and comprehensive review of the law on prostitution”.
He said a report on a recent public consultation process on the issue would be drawn up by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality by the year’s end.
PROSTITUTION LAWFOUR DIFFERENT APPROACHES
A discussion document published by the department in June sets out four different approaches to prostitution law:
* total criminalisation, where all aspects of prostitution are illegal;
* partial criminalisation, which would see only sex workers or only buyers are criminalised;
* non-criminalisation, which would mean sex workers would have to comply with employment, health and safety, and human rights and equality legislation;
* legalisation or regulation, where the trade is regulated at central or local-government level to specify where, when and how sex work may be engaged in.