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A still from the RTÉ documentary broadcast last month RTE Investigation Unit

'This Christmas Day there will be women in brothels around the country'

Prostitution charity Ruhama found an increase in the women accessing its services last year.

LAST YEAR HUNDREDS of women came forward to report the exploitation and abuse they received as a result of the sex trade in Ireland.

Ruhama, a charity that supports the victims of prostitution, has published a new report on the extent of the situation.

Speaking about it, the group’s CEO Sarah Benson said:

“We should all consider the fact that this Christmas Day while most of us settle down to a meal with loved ones, many women will be in brothels around the country, far from family and friends.”

In 2014 it provided support to 304 women from 37 different nationalities, 88 of whom were victims of sex trafficking.

In the report a clear trend for sex work taking place in brothels – rather than out on the street – has emerged.

What did the report find?

Over the past year Ruhama gave street outreach support to 76 women, with staff and volunteers spending more than 1,000 on the streets over 143 nights.

More than 1,000 face-to-face meetings took place, with this being a 37% increase on the number from the previous year.

The service also worked to establish phone and text contact with those working in prostitution, offering them ongoing support.

prostitution - 1 Ruhama Ruhama

How bad is the problem?

Last month an investigation by RTÉ took a look into the gangs that were operating around the country.

It found that women were being moved around brothels all over the country, and that prices in the sex trade had fallen dramatically in recent times.

Over the course of the programme women spoke about being trafficked to Ireland and then having to work in prostitution to pay back the cost of travel.

Ruhama is calling for a boost in the amount of resources available for tackling problems attached to prostitution and sex trafficking.

It argues that this could be done through greater funding of Garda National Protective Service Bureau – the section of the gardaí with a special focus in this area.

It has also called for a strengthening of legislation in relation to prostitution, giving full backing to the Sexual Offences Bill 2015. 

The Bill is set to go to the floor of the Seanad this Friday.

Read: Man charged with attempted murder after London Tube knife attack

Also: ‘Prostitution happens a lot, but what can you do? You have to eat’

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85 Comments
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    Mute Ben Smith
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:32 PM

    Ruhama was set up by the same order of nuns that ran the Magdalene Laundries, so I would be very dubious about accepting their opinions on prostitution. It ought to be legalised and regulated in my opinion, and that seems to be the consensus among sex workers.

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:37 PM

    yes. And they don;t accept male or gay male prostitutes either. They are a joke, even worse, a Catholic joke organisation. Bacik and they wish to see prostitution criminalised but only for the purchaser. So the seller is entirely free to do as they wish and won;t be prosecuted. This is exactly the same as only prosecuting the users of drugs and letting the drug dealer walk free. It’s outrageous and will drive prostitution underground, as well as opening the door to blackmail.

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:39 PM

    And we ALREADY have anti-trafficking laws so they are intentionally conflating this issue to avoid criticism and have stick to beat people with. They are entirely separate issues.

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    Mute Stephen Duffy
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:44 PM

    Rihanna are getting this badly wrong and will only make thing worse for those working on the streets.

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 1:54 PM

    “This group that really helps a section of people who are suffering immensely aren’t helping the other, smaller, section of people who are also suffering immensely, so lets axe them. It’s better that nobody gets help if everybody isn’t getting help.”

    Right, well what are you doing to help men who work in prostitution to get out of it?

    Also, everyone is so upset at the idea of criminilasing the BUYING of sex, but not the selling of it. You know that gay men are also victimised by the purchasers of sex too, right? Comparing the buying of another person’s body to choosing to use drugs is a complete strawman.

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    Mute Al-Right
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:03 PM

    Rihanna through the medium of her overly sexual song lyrics and soft-core porn movie music videos has a lot to answer for in terms of overly sexualising women while posing as a singer/artist….

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    Mute Carmella Mcgilvery
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:30 PM

    You cant get rid of trafficking by making the purchase of sex illegal

    all you will do is turn respectable citizens into criminals.. and give power to the criminal gangs

    sex workers and sex buyers may be doing something you don’t approve of
    .. but they are doing something that does not harms anyone else

    all you will do is dilute the garda resources (and most of the tips about possible trafficking come from sex buyers)

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    Mute Paul Dunne
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:10 PM

    she’s a fine mare that Rihanna.

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:18 PM

    >all you will do is turn respectable citizens into criminals

    I don’t exactly think people who buy and use another persons body for their own sexual gratification are exactly “respectable citizens”.

    If someone wants to sell sex, and they decide to do it even though they have other viable options they could realistically take, then fair enough. I don’t want to police thos people. But the majority of people in prostitution are there because they come from very disadvantaged backgrounds, and I think it’s abhorrent to take advantage of another person like that, and to form it as some sort of equal transaction is terrible.

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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Dec 7th 2015, 5:21 PM

    If men are so minority they this group could easily choose to help them too. They don’t. Very questionable behaviour if it is the case. How they could turn one away and help the other based on gender is despicable.

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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Dec 7th 2015, 5:30 PM

    Gender specific help group and centers are baffling when it can affect both sexes

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    Mute Anthony Healy Poroloniczak
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    Dec 7th 2015, 5:44 PM

    What did Rihanna do to get slated – her music isn’t that bad

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    Mute Eleen
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    Dec 7th 2015, 5:48 PM

    M. Veronica,

    I get where you’re coming from here but if you researched it a bit more, you’d realise that a lot of marginalised sex workers are the very ones fighting to be able to keep working free of any criminalisation – and AWAY from police (who are often the no. 1 abusers of sex workers & trafficking victims btw).

    You have to think about what you’re saying when you talk about choice. There are plenty who do it because they have no other viable option (survival sex workers), but a lot of them will argue that taking away their ability to earn money (as safely as possible) does not help them whatsoever. They don’t appreciate people deciding for them what they are (ie. victims who need to be rescued). They don’t appreciate language like you have used (people “buying them” – they’re selling a service and that kind of language you/rescue organisations use is very violent. Many sex workers complain about this obsession with over-the-top descriptions of violence as being a type of “misery porn” – and they are once again being exploited by those who use this language to sell their books/reports/legislation)

    Most sex workers are VERY wary of Ruhama – who, like many rescue organisations, pretty much coerce those seeking help to talk about their experiences in a specific way, and use them to further an agenda that ends up hurting more marginalised people than it saves.

    Articles like this, and organisations like Ruhama, like to paint this picture that sex work is somehow this terrible thing: “This Christmas Day there will be women in brothels around the country”. Well. We have two sets of people here – people who are trafficked and want to get out, and people who have decided to work there. The majority of times there are brothel raids, the guards find very little or no instances of trafficking. The evidence flies directly in the face of the claims organisations like Ruhama make so often.

    I’m not saying they don’t exist – but how we tackle trafficking should be separate and focused only on actual trafficking cases, and NOT on sex workers (and bear in mind that instances of labour trafficking is often WAY HIGHER than sex trafficking, but no one ever talks about that). Even still, anti-sex trafficking legislation is often used in a racist fashion – to deport undesirable people quickly and easily (a lot of people who get called trafficking victims don’t consider themselves as such and end up coming back to do the same thing again because they want to earn money).

    The main way we can actually support people who are selling sex is put money into social services, fight all kinds of discrimination (for eg. LGBT people are often high at risk because they can’t get jobs easily or get kicked out of their homes etc). And we definitely have to support actual sex work organisations, listen to them and fight the stigma around them because as it stands, they face nothing but violence from the state, the public, and police (just thinking about that recent-ish case of the guard who snuck back to force a sex worker to have sex with him after they raided her place).

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:07 PM

    BRILLIANT POST!!!

    The only thing I can add is that it’s all very well sitting in a brothel on Christmas day, but you’d never find anyone to sell sex to…myself and several sex workers without family commitments use give it a try every so often (after New Year’s Eve you will make very little money until February). Not one of us could ever find a client, so, in going for a knee jerk reaction Ruhama proved, once again, that they know nothing about sex work or sex workers…because sex workers avoid them like the plague…

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:21 PM

    You seriously thing that people from very disadvantaged backgrounds (like mine) should be punished by forcing them under the thumb of abusive orgs like Ruhama rather than letting them use sex work as a last resort to try and save themselves?

    Even today, I cannot sit in a room for 30 minutes with the endless lies and mind games Ruhama run on…having my life at their mercy would be worse than death…

    WHAT is wrong with you?

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:52 PM

    It’s rubbish…

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    Mute Eleen
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:52 PM

    Thank you Gaye.

    I actually do get where M. Veronica is coming from, in that unless you really look into it with an open mind, it’s very hard to get past all the lies, deception and creepy head-games these anti-sex work organisations use to further their agendas. I too once fell into their trap before researching it and being met with the reality.

    But I think what REALLY worries me is this: when feminists especially start supporting criminalisation (either of sex workers or of clients) to “stop prostitution”, they’re giving the very same oppressive, patriarchal and discriminatory powers that put those vulnerable people there in the first place more power over them. And they don’t even think about it. How can they support Ruhama? (It took me 5 mins to research and find that they’re run by 2 of the orders of nuns that ran magdalene laundries and to this day refuse to pay compensation to their victims). HOW can any feminist support this org?

    Any marginalised person will be wary of those who wield power. I would think after all the carry-on from the guards over the water protests, people would think twice. I’m sure most feminists know that reporting a sexual assault to the gardai, for example, can be a terrifying experience since they don’t take it seriously. What makes them think they’d have any respect for sex workers?

    I just don’t get it :/

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:53 PM

    Eleen….who gives Ruhama their Shekels?who funds these chicks?

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:57 PM

    Gaye…I’m totally suspicious of Ruhama..who are they..who pays THEM..why are working girls any of their business?

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    Mute wgp
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    Dec 7th 2015, 7:00 PM

    @Pepper It is an outrageous thing to say that any Organization doing its best to solve such a horrific issue as prostitution is a joke! Shame on you! Even if they succeed in rescuing 1 person from its horrific clutches they will have succeeded in saving someone from a life of hell. Shame on you for making such an ill informed comment!

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 8:38 PM

    Joachin,

    Ruhama kicked off in 1989 as a spin off of a drop in project the south Lotts side of Baggot St (name WILL not come to me) that seems to have been a gateway for the laundries (though at the time we associated it all with the legion of Mary). By 1992 they hand in hand with the Women’s Health Project who were funded largely by a sexual health/sex work data collation project out Strasbourg lead by Rud Mak called Europap (later disbanded and absorbed into Tampep (which excluded Ireland as there were no migratory sex workers at that time).

    Here is a taste of it all:
    https://mymythbuster.wordpress.com/ruhama-conferences-1995-and-2013/

    In real terms Ruhama has always been an NGO without a real user group, and is now about 70% state funded one way or the other. This might seem unlikely…but it isn’t even uncommon, surprisingly few NGOs have any mandate from or relationship with the user groups they claim to represent, routinely excluding them from executive participation on any level.

    The thing about sex work is that you can evade disclosure for ever on the groups of stigma and confidentiality. Sex workers are competitors as well as colleagues so they do not unite well…

    Basically sex workers are just so many sitting ducks for the lie that is Ruhama to exploit at will…and that is exactly what Ruhama have always done, to the point where they have become part of a ridiculously influential lobby that is built on absolutely nothing but lies, and will do nothing but harm.

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 8:50 PM

    Gaye…every time is see their name I get irritated…its clear as day that they are on some mission…that they have NO idea what your life is like……

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 9:54 PM

    I think that just about says it…

    They have NO idea about my life…nor anyone else’s.

    I was just thinking…18 years I stuffed it all…knowing that I couldn’t turn anywhere for help with the truth of my life, because we had been misrepresented so thoroughly and insistently to agenda. Too scared to challenge the lies, or even assert *MY* needs because they didn’t fit the Ruhama approved profile (that never fitted anyone I knew anyway).

    Ruhama were just a mockery of all the help I, or anyone else I knew, needed.

    I am glad I am not too scared to tell the truth any more…

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    Mute Richard Barrett
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:30 PM

    If prostitution was legalised like other countries, sex trafficking would be mimimised.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:32 PM

    Your sentiment is correct. However, it is decriminalisation which is sought by sex workers the world over: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2015/10/difference-between-decriminalisation-and-legalisation-sex-work

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    Mute Jp Vaughan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:34 PM

    I’ll be working too on Christmas day, get over it.

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    Mute Bob Freeman
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:36 PM

    There will also be a lot of women who have control over who they see, how much they charge, and where the visits take place, meeting people over the Christmas period. Strange how Ruhama never go on about those women..

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:03 PM

    Firstly, because they help women who are seeking help.

    Secondly, because the women working in prostitution who are doing it out of completely free-choice and are in control of themselves and their “earnings” are in the massive minority.

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    Mute China Photo Daily
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:23 PM

    How do you know they are in a minority Veronica? Could you provide a source?

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:59 PM

    >Service providers suggested that poverty, poor educational involvement/attainment, low levels of literacy, experiences of abuse and early sexual grooming, childhood adversity, unstable family background often leading to periods spent in residential or foster care, alcohol and drug use, and homelessness, are some of the common characteristics and background experiences shared by those who enter prostitution, whether male or female

    -https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjNyJq5_8nJAhXCMhoKHQKtAqwQFggiMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihrec.ie%2Fdownload%2Fdoc%2Freaserch_prostitution.doc&usg=AFQjCNHhzgtOMOWodKRWhwU9YjZH84iuHQ&bvm=bv.108538919,d.d2s

    One can infer that the majority of people working in prostitution are not coming from middle-class backgrounds, with multiple university degrees, good jobs, and a caring childhood.

    Everyone here is trying to cover their eyes to try to believe that all women in prostitution are in it for a good time, and that buying somebody to use for sex is an OK thing to do, because hey, they love it.

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:26 PM

    Buying sex for money IS ok. Why is it any of your business what two consenting adults do in the bedroom and what transaction they make? Sex is a physiological function. That’s all. Are you ashamed of sex or something? What about the prositutes involved? Have they no agency at all??

    And why don;t you look up some real research instead of linking that crap. Queens University,Belfast would be a good place to start. They found over 95% of prostitutes questioned on whether this law would make it safer or more unsafe for them, responded it would make it more unsafe.

    So do you listen to them, or your hunches? Or should we seriously listen to Ruhama – the Magdalene laundry crowd? What do you think?

    Would you outlaw massage therapy too?

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:10 PM

    >What about the prositutes involved? Have they no agency at all??

    I just pointed out that what you’re calling agency, many people would not. The people who end up in prostitution are not who you seem to with they were: people with the option of working anywhere else. Why would you bring this back to assuming I’m ashamed of sex? I’m absolutely not ashamed of sex, when it’s 100% consensual and there is no power-play at hand. Sex between two consenting adults is a great thing, sex where one person pays money to a disadvantaged person for the sole use of using their body for orgasm, is not.

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:12 PM

    Veronica,

    I hated sex work, but not half as much as I hate Ruhama…I have PTSD from the twisted mental and emotional abuse of Ruhama, they destroyed parts of me beyond recovery.

    If it were not for sex work I wouldn’t have survived…so thank heaven for it.

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:15 PM

    When you have no option at all destroying the market for sexual services does you more damage than anyone else and may well kill you.

    This is not a positive thing.

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 7:01 PM

    Keep your opinions coming Gaye………

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    Mute The Guru
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:37 PM

    If only they were actually interested in reducing trafficking and not pushing their prehistoric Catholic agenda they would look at global studies which shows that making it illegal has very little effect. Legalising it however, does. Handy that RTE and the Journal are on their side too.

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    Mute TommyRyder
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:56 PM

    Great.
    Might nip round for a quick threesome with a couple of Hungarian brunettes while the family are watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
    Any phone numbers?

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    Mute Ciaran O Shea
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:39 PM

    The headline reads like a weird public service announcement. In other news: busses and trains will not be running and your local shop will open from 12 – 2pm

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    Mute Mindfulirish
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:20 PM

    Where are Pro life when you need them?

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:38 PM

    Stupid question. Shou;dn;t you be asking where the pro-choice “her body her choice” people are instead??

    Ivana Bacik is behind this after all.

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:05 PM

    Because very few people enter into prostitution through 100% free will. It’s her/his body, but rarely a their free choice.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:16 PM

    How do you know this veronica? Have you worked with them?

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:22 PM

    Where’s your evidence that very few enter due to free will? There’s none. You just made that up in the hope of passing it off as fact. It isn;t.

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:56 PM

    >Service providers suggested that poverty, poor educational involvement/attainment, low levels of literacy, experiences of abuse and early sexual grooming, childhood adversity, unstable family background often leading to periods spent in residential or foster care, alcohol and drug use, and homelessness, are some of the common characteristics and background experiences shared by those who enter prostitution, whether male or female

    -https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjNyJq5_8nJAhXCMhoKHQKtAqwQFggiMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihrec.ie%2Fdownload%2Fdoc%2Freaserch_prostitution.doc&usg=AFQjCNHhzgtOMOWodKRWhwU9YjZH84iuHQ&bvm=bv.108538919,d.d2s

    Here you go, give it a read. No doubt some armchair statisticians will have something to say on the methods that professors and doctors used, but hey.

    Everyone here is desperately trying to justify prostitution being legal on the buyers side. Nice.

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    Mute Pepper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:21 PM

    That’s a load of tosh. Did you read the third word in your first line?

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:44 PM

    I cannot get your link to work but your opening few lines suggest prostitutes come from bad backgrounds or have poor education, your stating what seems to be the obvious really, it still wouldn’t mean they were forced against their will into in (ie trafficked)

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    Mute M. Veronica
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:13 PM

    > it still wouldn’t mean they were forced against their will into in

    No, but supposing that you lost your job and home tomorrow, and were forced into a life of sleeping on the streets and having no income, and maybe with children to feed. If you ended up sexually servicing the men on this forum for money, would you say that you came into the profession of your own complete free will? The men here arguing that most people in prostitution are in it because they chose it out of many other options such as going to university are wilfully overlooking the fact that they are advocating taking advantage of another person’s misfortune in life for their own benefit, namely buying and using their body to pleasure themselves.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:25 PM

    Yes you still had the choice not to go into prostitution, so there was free will in the decision… Nobody forced them! It’s like saying someone who has a drug habit is forced into it.. It’s internal need not external force so it’s a personal decision… Your also hypocritical in your judgement, if the male/female prostitutes go out to sell a service to make money for reasons you state, you cannot just demonise the buyers as are they not helping that person provide for themselves and familes.

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    Mute John Mac
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:36 PM

    Veronica,
    if taking the choice of prostitution is taken away from people who have no other viable choices, then exactly how is that going to help them? Everybody approves of proper exit strategies for those who want or need to exit and everybody agrees for heaviest sentencing for those who forcibly traffic and exploit. The question is whether those who consciously make the decision to sell sex as the best financial situation that THEY are willing to participate in, should have the maximum legal rights to do so.
    I wouldn’t like relatives of mine to sell sex because its a dangerous way to make money but i’d rather than if they DID make that choice, then they could do do in the safest possible environment with full legal rights.
    Ruhama oppose this on the grounds of ideology and are quite willing to turn a blind eye to the same abuse happening in Sweden as was exposed on PTInvestigates in order thelp that legislation through.

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:26 PM

    Well M Veronica,

    I am not a man, and I have sold sex out of utter desperation and I will repeat what I have already said:
    I hate selling sex but I *can* do it…I would rather die than let Ruhama (who I have known 26 years) get their claws into my life, they are too mentally and emotionally abusive and I cannot take that.

    I couldn’t even begin to know how to play along with the lies they peddle either.

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    Mute james
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:38 PM

    Gives new meaning to InDiana Jones after dinner on Christmas Day…

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    Mute AL Thornton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:48 PM

    So Santa won’t be the one coming on Xmas day

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Dec 7th 2015, 1:18 PM

    Or emptying his sack

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    Mute Not_Rod_Ten©
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:32 PM

    Ho Ho Ho

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    Mute Oisin O'Riordan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:55 PM

    Not just the turkey getting stuffed this Christmas.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:11 PM

    Ruhama a state-funded “frontline service provider” with #Not1Condom ever provided.
    Defies all health advocacy.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:18 PM

    They do provide condoms despite what the website says

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:25 PM

    I’m not taking it from their website. I have it on very good authority that they don’t. They’ve been asked if they do and have not responded. The ball is in your court: prove it!

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:53 PM

    I have worked with different support services and have seen them hand out sanitary wipes, condoms, lube and soup to the girls.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:18 PM

    And Ruhama?

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:21 PM

    No not for ruhama but have been crossed over them on nights we would call out. I’ve seen the packs they hand out. So like yourself have it on good authority that they do.. I’m Not a fan of ruhama though.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:29 PM

    Ruhama has been asked if they provide condoms – an absolute must for healthcare – and have declined to answer. Does silence not provide the answer.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 3:39 PM

    No evidence normally does… I have seen them do it, I can only comment on what I’ve seen.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:19 PM

    Look, you haven’t even detailed what you’ve seen. So, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove. High-ranking healthcare professionals have asked the question and have not been given an answer by Ruhama.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:51 PM

    You haven’t said anything other than you have it on good authority they don’t…. that constitutes proof to you…. I’m not sure how much clearer I can be of what I’ve seen them hand out .. I’ve seen ruhama hand out the items listed above (condoms, lube, soup, sanitary wipes)..

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    Mute Rust Cohle
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    Dec 7th 2015, 12:47 PM

    Do they open on Christmas Day?

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    Mute Pádraig Ó Máirtín
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:28 PM

    Legalise, regulate & tax it , it’s going to happen anyway thats plain enough , let’s just be grown ups about this

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:55 PM

    Remember, when women do something illegal or immoral they are victims. When men do it they are bad people.

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    Mute Ann Kim Sambidge
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:22 PM

    As to: “#RTÉInvestigates have collated 4yrs of data on prostitution, tracking each profile, mobile phone & movement of every woman advertised online.”
    If this is correct, RTE has broken the law in tracking mobile phones. (amongst others)
    If RTE hypes their program with inaccuracies – lies – how much of the “investigation” is believable?
    Is the “investigation” just another breathless rush along to cover over the plot holes?
    And can “Anna” be believed? http://anna-human-trafficking-ireland.com/

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    Mute John Mac
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:27 PM

    While the programme did provide very very useful information as regards the atrocity of sex trafficking , you have to wonder as to why the Primetime unit didn’t actually disclose to the public that the VERY SAME abuses happening here have been a major problem in Sweden ,which TORL have been marketing as a success. e.g. the PSNI in their submission to the NI Commission found in their experiences significant levels of prostitution and trafficking in Sweden despite their laws.

    What’s particularly insidious about Ruhama and TORL in general is that the same orgns who pronounce the criminalisation of the purchase of sex as one of the solution to the problems of sex trafficking are the most determined to cover up the extent of such abominations in Sweden – in order to present the Swedish legislation as a success

    Did wonder during the programme whether PTI would challenge the TORL claims with the the annual Swedish
    Trafficking Reports which admitted the exact same vile abuses there .Wonder why not?

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:03 PM

    …the whole documentary comes apart at the seams when you realise the man who was in the last, 2012 documentary has, in fact, been remanded in custody for unrelated offences since March 2014…which took me 10 minutes on Google to find out…yet SOMEHOW “4 years investigation” did not turn it up?

    They filmed various scenes and edited them carefully – they are not evidence one way or the other…but far worse things *WILL* happen because of the Nordic model and will be far too well organised for RTE to film them.

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 5:58 PM

    I have know Ruhama since 1989 and there have never been more than a couple of dozen women interacting with them at any time, and some of those would only be interacting because Ruhama park the van on the street and prevent them making any money until someone does.

    Sex workers loathe and fear Ruhama…people tend to respond that way to being infantilised, condescended to, exploited, lied to and lied about.

    Let me be very plain, this is *NOT* about difference of opinion or subjectivity, I have personally caught Ruhama telling one barefaced lie after another over those 26 years…as a result if they said grass was green I would go out to check. The only sincere thing about them is the contempt in which they hold all sex workers.

    The “Turn Off the Red Light” campaign has pulled every dirty trick in the book and they are about to get their own way and make the lives of the most vulnerable sex workers impossible with the Nordic Model, and they know that, and knew that all along, as well as I do. The harm of it will be consistently brushed under the carpet for at least a decade.

    But I stood there, twenty years ago, and watched with my own eyes as the Nuns of Ruhama swore upon the cross they would never support any kind of criminalisation…the biggest lie of all.

    As a result I tend to take Mrs Brown’s boys more seriously than any report Ruhama ever have, or ever will produce.

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    Mute Paul Dunne
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:08 PM

    if these ladies are working Christmas day of their own free will the best of luck to them.

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    Mute aoife kally
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:13 PM

    Lets not forget there are a LOT of prostitutes who WANT to be prostitutes . All of these so called ‘sex workers’ need to be prosecuted and jailed. The buyers too if they can be chaught. I hear people say “oh some of these women have no choice,they have no money and they are forced to sell there bodys” Well if i had no money and decided to sell drugs i would be sent to jail so lets not beat around the bush.

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    Mute China Photo Daily
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:24 PM

    Come again?

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    Mute Seán Ó Donnaile
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:38 PM

    And up goes the rape stats for the country!! Great idea!! No point in beating around the bush excuse your pun!!

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    Mute Paul Dunne
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:13 PM

    that will be an extra 50€

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    Mute Gaye Dalton
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:29 PM

    Oh I wouldn’t like too see the sex industry half heartedly dithered about with like that at all Aoife….

    BRING BACK HANGING FOR THE LOT OF ‘EM…that’s what I say…and don’t be wasting public money on courts, there are perfectly good lampposts all over the place.

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    Mute Seán Domhnall O'Sullivan
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:08 PM

    Catholic agenda

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    Mute Joachin Peiper
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    Dec 7th 2015, 6:50 PM

    Ruhama are NEVER happy! I have to work Christmas….do they care?

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    Mute albhbc
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    Dec 7th 2015, 4:05 PM

    Santa’s cuming.

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    Mute Garreth Mc Mahon
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    Dec 7th 2015, 2:55 PM

    Good enough reason to miss the queens Christmas message so.

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    Mute Carmella Mcgilvery
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    Dec 7th 2015, 9:17 PM

    Its pretty smart how they have designed to bill to get rid of any intelligible conversation…
    putting all men or women who have used the service of a prostitute in the same category as child molesters

    The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015

    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    protect children
    (oh , also criminalise the purchase of sexual services )

    http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Criminal_Law_(Sexual_Offences)_Bill_2015

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    Mute Ian Compton
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    Dec 8th 2015, 12:29 PM

    That’s my Christmas day sorted

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