Mick Wallace is wrong: Prostitution is not a financial transaction between consenting adults – Corcoran Kennedy

Fine Gael TD for Laois/Offaly and Member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, has objected to comments and inaccuracies made by Mick Wallace and backed up by Clare Daly, who have simplified prostitution as a mere financial transaction between consenting adults.

“I find it very hard to understand how Mick Wallace and Clare Daly can object to planned legislation that would criminalise payment for sex on the grounds that it ‘will signify the re-involvement of the State in the private sexual lives of adult citizens’. What is more important; that we protect vulnerable women and men, many of whom have been trafficked into this this country for the sole purpose of entering the sex industry, or that we protect those who take advantage of their vulnerability?

“Criticism of this legislation refers to the confusion between prostitution and sex trafficking. There is no confusion. The reality is that many women have been trafficked into Ireland in order to be made work in the sex industry. Very few women choose to willingly engage in prostitution despite what anyone may say. I do not believe that there is a cohort of women planning prostitution as a career choice because of the opportunities it offers them.

“It is not as simple as criminalising the act of buying sex and solving the problem, we know that. However, the demand from men who buy sex fuels both the trade in trafficked women and girls, and it sustains a prostitution industry worth an estimated €180 million a year in Ireland. Deputies Wallace and Daly appear to see prostitution as a regular form of ‘work’ , and they ignore analysis of prostitution as an inherently harmful human rights abuse. Research from Northern Ireland cited by the Deputies in the criticism of the ‘Turn Off the Red Light’ campaign says that only 16% of buyers said the law would stop them paying for sex. However, international research contradicts this finding and supports the belief that criminalising the purchase of sex will be effective, especially for casual buyers.

“It is the lowest of the low to suggest that this Government, in trying to protect women working in prostitution, are underestimating their mental capacity to choose. Prostitution is not just a financial transaction, like you’re going into the shop to buy a litre of milk. We know that many women make choices to go into prostitution because they have no other option.

“Many of the young women working in the sex industry are little more than children or they were trafficked into this country as children for the sole purpose of being sold as prostitutes. Research shows that many women first enter prostitution as children . This change would make a difference to these children.

“A similar law to the one we are proposing was introduced in Sweden in 1999. Surveys indicate that more than 70% of people in Sweden favour the measures and a recent 10-year evaluation of the law found a reduction in the number of men paying for sex, a drop in the number of women involved in prostitution, and a dramatic fall in the numbers of women and girls trafficked to Sweden for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

“Deputies Wallace and Daly had an opportunity to put across their thoughts on this issue to the Oireachtas Justice Committee but neither did so. I believe that legislators should engage to inform legislation, to make a real difference to the lives of the vulnerable young people working in the sex industry and not pontificate for publicity purposes.”