GRIOTS REPUBLIC - An Urban Black Travel Mag - March 2016

Come for the banter
and the craic. Stay as
long as you like, and
go ahead and treat
yourself to some sex
with a professional.
drawn up in 2012 by the Justice Committee and
is currently moving through stages for approval..
Minister for Justice, Francis Fitzgerald, agreed to
sit with members of SWAI (Sex Workers Alliance
Ireland) to hear our concerns about the section of
the bill that would make it an offence to buy sex. We
described to the Minister how violence escalated
in the streets of Dublin after it was made illegal to
sell sex in the streets and workers lost trust in the
Gardai, the National Police. The Minister replied,
“But won’t that serve as a deterrent from entering
the industry?”
The proposed law would double penalties
for women working together for safety, with
a potential jail sentence. It is an attempt to
make the industry as risky as possible and
therefore an unattractive option. The results
are workers - who will work regardless -
becoming collateral damage. The most underresourced
workers are surely going to keep
working; and with this law that forces the
industry underground, they will be in more
dangerous circumstances.
Criminalising clients also creates dangerous
circumstances for sexworkers. Criminalising
the client tips the power dynamic in his favour.
He may no longer want to come to our in-call
location for fear of being seen and instead
insist we go on an outcall to him, to a place
we are unfamiliar with and have no control
over. Street workers would now be dealing
with nervous and rushed clients which could
prevent them from going through their safety
protocols. They will have less time to negotiate
services offered or condom use. If even for
a short time there is a reduction in clients,