Sex workers deserve better from legislation

Sex workers can speak for themselves and don’t need to be rescued by an unholy alliance of fundamentalists and radical feminists who wish to criminalise their clients in order to “send a message”.

A disastrous abolitionist policy will make operating more dangerous and less in the open.

The vast majority of escorts in a recent Northern Ireland poll are opposed to such retrograde moves.

The same subjective criteria (which will put the law into disrepute) used against consensual sex work could equally be used against homosexual practices, the sale of condoms or in favour of censorship. Are unsafe one-night-stands after binge drinking preferable?

Criminalising clients of willing participants in order to stop trafficking is using the same logic as criminalising Islam in order to stop terrorism.

Niamh McGrath

Old Bawn Road

Tallaght

Dublin 24