Council: Criminalise buying of sex

Cork City Council has become one of the largest local authorities to back a national campaign to make the buying of sex illegal.

There was unanimous cross-party support last night for Labour Cllr Catherine Clancy’s motion calling on Justice Minister Alan Shatter to introduce legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex as part of a wider strategy to tackle the trafficking of women, men and children into Ireland for exploitation and prostitution.

The motion was tabled on behalf of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Cois Tine, and Nasc, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, groups which are part of the national Turn Off the Red Light campaign, which is calling for the buying of sex to be illegal.

It was launched after the minister announced a public consultation process on prostitution laws in June.

Similar motions have been passed by local authorities in Leitrim, Longford, and Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown.

Mary Crilly, director of the Sexual Violence Centre in Cork, attended last night’s Cork City Council meeting and welcomed its support.

“There are 1,000 women involved in prostitution in Ireland in any one day,” she said.

“Many women are trafficked and are, in effect, sex slaves. This is a human rights issue.

“The only way to tackle the problem is to tackle the demand is by criminalising the buyer.”

Ms Clancy told the council meeting that 57 victims of trafficking — most of whom were female but including men and some children — were identified in Ireland last year, resulting in four convictions.

“In other countries, the criminalisation of the purchase of sex has proven to be an efficient approach in tackling this problem.”

Cllr Mary Shields (FF) said Ireland had become a “soft touch” for criminals involved in the sex industry and she praised the Irish Examiner for its investigative work exposing the trade.

Cllr Joe O’Callaghan (FG) said supporting the motion would show that this city does not support or condone slave labour or sex slavery.

“We will not tolerate those responsible and we will root them out for the mongrels that they are. It’s like any form of cancer — you have to kill it at source,” he said.

Cllr Mick Barry (SP) said supporting the motion would be an important step forward but he warned that the sex trade could not be legislated out of existence.

“The key question is poverty and the conditions some women find themselves in. The policies of austerity are driving women into the trade,” he said.

Nasc chief executive Fiona Finn said while Ireland had made progress in tackling sex trafficking in recent years, the State had failed to address the “demand” side of the problem.

“If there was no demand... the sex trafficking industry would collapse,” she said.

Interested groups can make submissions which will be considered by the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence, which is due to report by the end of November.

The law on prostitution was last fully reviewed in 1993.