Garda figures show a dramatic rise in the number of people prosecuted for buying sex, The Sunday Times has revealed.
More than 300 charges for buying sex were brought in the first quarter of 2024, compared to annual figures of 348 in 2023, and 401 in 2022.
Under Ireland’s Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 it is illegal to buy sex, but not to sell it. However, advertisements for selling sex are banned.
Exploitation
According to the newspaper, 869 women are listed ‘for hire’ through Escort-Ireland, which it described as the largest website in the country for selling sex.
It found that less than 4 per cent of the women advertising on the website are Irish, and that sixteen per cent are under the age of 25, with some as young as 18.
Ruth Breslin, a member of the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme at University College Dublin, said adverts for women as young as 18 or 19 for ‘low prices’ was a “red flag for trafficking or exploitation”.
In November, Justice Minister Helen McEntee admitted that hundreds of women have been “forced into prostitution” in Ireland, and that prostitution was “inextricably linked” to trafficking.
Exploitation
Guardian columnist Sonia Sodha has blasted arguments claiming that decriminalising sex work makes women safer.
She said: “Decriminalisation can’t make prostitution safe because it is inherently dangerous and exploitative.”
The columnist cited interviews from women in countries with legal brothels, revealing that exploitation was rife and that legalisation empowered brothel owners.
A survey conducted by Ruhama, a group helping women exit prostitution in Ireland, found that many women and even some children had experienced “grooming, coercion, force and trafficking into prostitution”.
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