Will it be third time lucky for bill to ban sex-for-rent exploitation?

Previous attempts to get a bill outlawing the practice have been mired in delays or floundered under pre-legislative scrutiny

The latest proposed legislation is the latest twist to a problem that has been too difficult to solve for the many people — mainly women — offered sex-for-rent arrangements in Ireland’s squeezed rental sector. File picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Will it be a case of third time lucky for the latest bill seeking to outlaw sex-for-rent arrangements which will be debated by the Seanad on Wednesday?

Or will it be just another notch in the ongoing saga to legislate against a practice which is targeted primarily at female international students seeking to move to Ireland?

While the minister for justice Jim O’Callaghan has promised not to oppose the Prohibition of Advertising or Importuning Sex for Rent Bill 2025, it is not a guarantee the legislation will make it to enactment. 

A previous attempt by Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan to get his Ban on Sex for Rent Bill 2022 safely through the various stages fell at the hurdle of pre-legislative scrutiny by the then justice committee — despite being supported by the government.

While Mr O’Callaghan has pledged not to oppose the most recent piece of legislation, he has raised some concerns about the bill being brought by Labour senator Laura Harmon. A meeting between the two is expected to take place on Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s Seanad debate, in a bid to iron out any concerns the minister may have.

At the same time, negotiations are continuing between the Department of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General in efforts to reach a solution to a problem which has been on ministerial desks since early 2022. 

In a reaction to a December 2021 investigation by the Irish Examiner into sex for rent practices, the then minister for housing Darragh O’Brien and minister for justice Helen McEntee pledged to tackle the issue urgently.

However, discussions on how to deal with the issues have been mired in various delays, as renters — primarily female — continue to be offered sex-for-rent arrangements, overtly on some sites but typically, more covertly, when they respond to what seems a normal rental advertisement.

As the contacts with the office of the Attorney General got under way over three years ago, so too did efforts by the opposition, with Cian O’Callaghan introducing his bill on International Women’s Day in March 2022.

The offences in the bill included sex-for-rent propositions, as well as the advertising of such propositions and the hosting of such advertisements. 

Penalties of a jail term of seven years and a fine of up to €50,000 were incorporated in the legislation.

Although the government supported it during the second stage debate, the then junior justice minister James Browne highlighted some areas of concern and it was referred to the justice committee, where it was rejected in October 2022. 

A report on the bill from the committee cited concern about a lack of clarity on the definitions of several elements of the legislation, “in particular in the drafting of core terms in relation to the criminal offences created by the bill”, adding there were “significant legal faults within the bill as drafted”.

Next came the now-paused Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Sex for Rent) Bill 2023, introduced in the Dáil by Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin. That piece of legislation sought to make it an offence under section 19 of that act for a landlord to seek sex in lieu of rent or to advertise for such arrangements. 

The bill lapsed with the last Dáil. Now, Mr Ó Broin has pledged to support Laura Harmon’s bill, which comes before the Seanad against the backdrop of the Government having included a pledge in its programme for government to criminalise people who make sex-for-rent offers.

Three years down the road from the first government commitments, fears are that the undercover nature of sex-for-rent offers to renters will be a legal minefield to tackle. For example, it is understood one of the stumbling blocks is ensuring consensual sexual relationships are not unwittingly criminalised in a bid to outlaw unwanted offers from predatory homeowners to struggling renters.

This time last year, there were fervent hopes an amendment to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 would be a panacea to the problem.

The amendment had been scheduled to be included in the legislation but work on finalising it was not completed on time to meet the bill’s deadline.

There were also suggestions it would be included in legislative proposals to be considered when recommendations from the review of part 4 of the Sexual Offences Act 2017 were made, after what was also a lengthy review process.

When launching a report last May on the issue, the National Women’s Council called for action but stressed any legislative proposals should be viewed as a sexual offence apart and removed from sex-purchase laws. The council warned that otherwise, those in such arrangements could suffer stigmatisation and such an approach would lead to low reporting as encountered in other jurisdictions where pursuing convictions requires the victim to identify as a "prostitute".

Almost a year later, Labour is now seeking to close the legal loophole allowing predatory homeowners to exploit vulnerable renters, by criminalising the soliciting of sexual services in exchange for a reduced rent or in lieu of rent. 

The latest proposed legislation is the latest twist to a problem that has been too difficult to solve for the many people — mainly women — offered sex-for-rent arrangements in Ireland’s squeezed rental sector.