Madam, - Nuala Haughey writes (The Irish Times, June 7th) that the Garda raids on lap-dancing clubs, resulting in nearly 100 women being held, have caused "little criticism of Operation Quest, which perhaps indicates a general public unease about the lap-dancing industry".
She is right, of course: the unease, as we see it, is due to the exploitation of young women by international criminal gangs. But we feel an equal unease at the way the Minister for Justice has used the public disquiet as a pretext to trawl for "illegal immigrants" among the exploited, arresting them and humiliating them in a glare of publicity.
If he is really concerned about the abuse of women in the sex industry, there is a simple solution - decriminalise prostitution, and recognise it as a regular sector of the entertainment industry, where women can organise themselves in trade unions and secure proper conditions of work.
It is not so long since actresses were generally regarded as a class of semi-prostitutes; the formation of the Equity trade union put an end to that. Moreover, in the UK lap-dancers are already unionised, and there are prostitutes' unions in other parts of the world.
Worldwide, the three largest industries are sex, drugs and armaments. Why is it that the first two are generally illegal and therefore controlled by gangsters, while the third is openly encouraged by governments, even in Ireland, though it actually produces refugees and asylum-seekers? Women and children make up 80 per cent of those whose lives are broken and destroyed by war.
If the Minister insists on creating new areas of criminality, let him use a bit of lateral thinking and start with the arms merchants. - Yours, etc.,
MARGARETTA D'ARCY, Chairperson, Women in Media and Entertainment, Galway.