Buying Sex: State needs to follow Northern lead

The North’s vote to criminalise the buying of sex is the wake-up call that the Oireachtas needs, writes Denise Charlton

THE overwhelming midnight vote of 81-10 by politicians at Stormont to support laws targeting the buyers of sex has made life a lot more difficult for the pimps, traffickers, and organised crime gangs which run prostitution north of the border.

The vote is historic, not only because it united the DUP and Sinn Féin, but also because for the first time those behind the multibillion-euro sex-trade on both sides of the Irish Sea will see their business model destroyed in one jurisdiction.