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The mental health system is preparing for a 'tsunami' of cases from young people - staff are worried it can't cope

Long waiting lists and a disjointed system have already caused major issues.

LACK OF FUNDING, long waiting lists and a disjointed system are the common complaints about Ireland’s mental health services, which critics say poorly serves young people. Now, with demand expected to increase due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are worries over whether the system can cope. 

TheJournal.ie spoke to staff, students and politicians who all shared the concern about whether the system could sustain an anticipated spike in cases and referrals. 

Some referred to the situation as akin to waiting for a tsunami, others likened it to a time-bomb. 

The months of September and October often see an increase in referrals for mental health as part of the normal cycle. Now with schools set to be transformed by public health guidelines and colleges moving largely online, staff in the sector are preparing for a rising number of issues among students. 

While anxiety and stress are to be expected, even less serious mental health issues place burdens on already overstretched services. 

Everyone who spoke to TheJournal.ie agreed that the system was under-funded and often inefficient. And while some praised the response of the government and colleges so far, they acknowledged that the next few months would likely bring fresh challenges. 

Colleges

The most recent report from the Union of Students of Ireland on mental health found that over 38% of students were suffering from anxiety, while 30% suffer from depression. 

There are concerns that the twin effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the alienation that could come with a largely online experience might see higher rates of stress and drop-out. 

Those troubles will then have to be dealt with by an already over-stretched system. Ireland currently has one student counsellor per 2,448 students – the international standard is one per 1,500.

Gertie Raftery, the chair of the Psychological Counsellors in Higher Education Ireland, said the system for college counselling is “under-resourced for what it does”.

“We look after the mental health needs of thousands of young people. We’re the main ones who deal with it,” she says. “Someone in private counselling doesn’t see what we see.

“We’re seeing the full gamut.”

Complaints can often be frustratingly simple, exacerbated now by the pandemic. Small rooms and a lack of space in colleges were problems pre-Covid-19. Now, they’re a major barrier to in-person, socially distanced counselling.

One ongoing issue the sector has is with how €2 million announced last October by Mary Mitchell O’Connor, then Minister of State for Higher Education, for “student mental health and well-being initiatives”, has not materialised. 

Counselling services say that they have yet to see the money nearly 12 months later. Officials in the sector believe it’s been provided out to colleges, but no one is sure why counselling services haven’t received it. Raftery says inquiries have been made with the new minister, Simon Harris. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Higher Education said that the HEA had provided the €2 million as part of the annual block grant to colleges. 

“It is envisaged that the funding would be used for the employment of additional counsellors, provision of additional counselling services, as well as initiatives in the area of mental health training in higher education institutions,” the spokesperson said. 

That funding – if it arrives to counsellors – will be used to support an unprecedented array of online supports that have been built up and enhanced in only a few months. Raftery says that change is here to stay. 

“We will never go back to all face-to-face. With the new generations, they’re used to working like that.”

The Department for Higher Education said that the Higher Education Authority has provided an extra €2 million this year for colleges to support student mental health, with €3 million also provided by the government to help college services cope with the challenges of Covid-19. 

“The HEA will be following up with institutions on this funding allocation as part of the implementation of the soon to be published National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework,” the department spokesperson said. 

Individual colleges also say they’ve been working to prepare for the coming academic year, with student counselling services already moved online. 

TU Dublin employs nine full-time counsellors for nearly 29,000 students. “To meet the extra demand for Counselling during busy periods such as returning to campus this autumn, after what has been a very stressful time for students, we can supplement our team of nine full-time counsellors with sessional counsellors,” a spokesperson said. 

But others say the wider problem is structural. Éamonn O’Dochartaigh, a student counsellor in TU Dublin, is worried about a “tsunami” of cases worsened by the difficulties of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the future. 

He recalls colleagues working from rooms where staff would be “bumping knees” with a student, while he also worries that too often it’s student counsellers – under-resourced and with an understandably limited range of skills – that are left to pick up the pieces in the face of long public health waiting lists. 

For him, the problem with student counselling services – whether they’re funded or not – is that they’re “neither fish nor fowl”.

“It’s money from Department of Education and money from student fees that’s channelled into counselling,” he says. “It needs, ultimately, a hard look at who is really is responsible to meet the mental health needs of two thirds of young people who go to third-level.”

coronavirus College counselling services are expecting a high demand. Brian Lawless / PA Wire/PA Images Brian Lawless / PA Wire/PA Images / PA Wire/PA Images

Ultimately, it’s the students who suffer. 

“I have accessed supports in the past and I am currently in the process of trying to reach out again to those same supports and whilst there was online supports there was a shortage of in person sessions due to Covid,” one student, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. 

Living with other people, I wouldn’t be comfortable speaking online with someone in case someone heard. I am in the process of reaching out to Jigsaw and hopefully getting a face to face session but was told today that it would be months until one became available. Who knows where we’ll be then?

Schools

In recent years, the government has expended significant energy and resources into both researching and promoting “well-being” and positive mental health in secondary schools. 

As one report from 2013 stated:

Mental health promotion and the provision of supports for vulnerable students depend on ongoing cooperation between schools and the range of available services and agencies from the education, health and community sectors.

Yet to critics, the system lacks the joined-up approach necessary to care for students. One of the key cogs in the mental health school system is the National Educational Psychological Service, which received an extra €1.25 million at the end of July to hire 17 new staff. 

And while psychologists at the service provide support to teachers, critics say the partnership leaves a lot to be desired and is often too reactive with staff rarely ‘on the ground’ in schools. 

“The system is not well enough resourced,” says Beatrice Dooley, President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. Mental health supports for schools, she says, have long been under stress – but Covid-19 has placed them “under the microscope” in a new way.

One of her main concerns is the referral system, which sees young people with mental health issues generally referred first to GPs. With large waiting lists and a pandemic-induced backlog already a very real concern, there are worries that young people might end up waiting even longer for care. 

In August 2019, close to 7,500 children and teenagers were waiting for an appointment with a public health psychologist – a figure that was nearly 20% higher than the previous year. 

“We’re going to have an increase of anxiety amongst students and more of them requiring referrals out, so where do we refer these young people to?” Dooley said. 

There is an acknowledgement that the government is at least aware of the problem. In July, as part of a €375 million support package for schools, 120 guidance posts were funded. 

Dooley has welcomed the decision, but highlights the need for principals to give these posts to qualified, guidance counsellors already in schools and not to opt for cheaper, external providers instead. 

For others, there is a sense of the crisis catching up with years of poor planning and provision at every level. 

Primary school mental health care, for instance, has long been lacklustre. As one report by Dublin City University academics noted in 2017, “a lack of funding and the absence of a national policy relating to school-based counselling” are major hurdles for principals to overcome. 

Work is ongoing. Carmel Halligan, the Youth Mental Health Promotion Manager at Jigsaw, which works with schools to support young people, said that the organisation had seen over 10,000 teachers sign up to complete online courses on mental health awareness. 

She believes schools are being “proactive” in preparing for the weeks ahead. She said the organisation had also “developed a series of resources for school leadership, teachers and for students which are designed to normalise conversations about mental health, develop mental health literacy and support help-seeking behaviours”. 

Social Democrats TD and the party’s education spokesperson Gary Gannon has raised the wider issue in the Dáil. He tells TheJournal.ie that the problem is a “time bomb” facing the government, which hasn’t yet done enough to support teachers and pupils. 

“Every year, normally, secondary schools don’t have the ability to cope with the flux of mental health needs of teenagers and young people. That inevitably falls on career guidance counsellors.

“All of a sudden we release that pressure valve in September and we’ve provided no additional support to schools.”

  • Our colleagues at Noteworthy want to investigate the measures being taken to tackle a pandemic-induced mental health crisis in Ireland. You can help fund their work here.

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19 Comments
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    Mute Peter Denham
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:28 PM

    Legalise it.

    610
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:09 PM

    @Peter Denham: Under no circumstance should any religious bodies be it the church itself or some branch of it have any say on policy in this country, lets face it they have zero credibility and have been proven lairs to forward their agenda no matter who is effected, sure just look at what they done to the children of this country how the hell are we listening to them in any shape or form!

    271
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    Mute dublincomments
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:11 PM

    @Peter Hughes: hmm. Confused. This has nothing to do with church.

    195
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:15 PM

    @dublincomments: The law was pushed by religious groups so yes it has EVERYTHING to do with the church.

    125
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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:24 PM

    @Peter Denham: and get the pimps to pay taxes …….

    51
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    Mute Chemical Brothers
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:09 PM

    @dublincomments: Ruhama ARE the church…former baby dealers actually.

    106
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    Mute The Thinker
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    Jan 5th 2019, 10:12 PM

    @Peter Denham: and rightly so

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    Mute Jason O Flynn
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    Jan 5th 2019, 10:31 PM

    @Peter Denham: you show me one other country that has legalised the sex tradeable has a crime rate lower than Ireland?

    Of course I’m being sarcastic. , and in the pub.

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    Mute Conor Kleaver
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    Jan 6th 2019, 11:22 AM

    @Peter Denham: they keep swallowing the evidence.

    15
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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Jan 6th 2019, 12:22 PM

    @Peter Denham: would you like your daughter to work in this “trade” or is it just for other people’s daughters?

    6
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    Mute Peter Denham
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    Jan 6th 2019, 9:37 PM

    @Seamus Mac: I would prefer my daughter working in safe and legal environment.

    8
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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Jan 6th 2019, 11:36 PM

    @Peter Denham: let’s legalize everything then.

    4
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    Mute Gaye D
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    Jan 7th 2019, 10:08 AM

    @Seamus Mac:

    Stupidest argument ever – the daughters of good fathers are unlikely to wind up selling sex as long as their father lives unless thy really want to, and if they really want to sell sex a good father does his best to support her choice.

    4
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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Jan 7th 2019, 10:45 AM

    @Gaye D: wow

    1
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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Jan 8th 2019, 10:41 AM

    @Seamus Mac: let’s stop invoking this nonsense shall we?
    There are plenty of things I wouldn’t want my daughter (if I had one) to do, but that doesn’t mean we should make them illegal.
    There’s a difference between not embracing a certain lifestyle/choice, and stigmatizing (or even worse, criminalizing) people who do.
    I for one am one of those old fashioned people who believe a certain degree of ‘live and let live’ and ‘mind your own business’ is needed in a healthy society.
    Otherwise let’s outlaw sex outside marriage, sugar daddies, gold diggers, adult movies, strip clubs, etc.

    11
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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Jan 8th 2019, 11:10 AM

    @Stan Papusa: like I say, let’s legalize everything then.

    2
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    Mute Keith McDonagh
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:42 PM

    If everyone involved in it willingly chooses to go into it & it’s all consensual then what’s the problem?

    384
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    Mute Random_paddy
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:54 PM

    @Keith McDonagh: i would say there’s a fair proportion who do are not providing their services willingly, ie. being human trafficked or slave to drug addiction

    140
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 6th 2019, 1:50 PM

    @Random_paddy: There are folks working in jobs they hate but have no choice or they are on the street, one needs to put food on the table however unplesent the job, people are working themselves into an early grave with the stress of it all……..I would rather by on a beach someplace they slaving away in the rat race but thats never going to happen lets face it.

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    Mute Al Fresco
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    Jan 6th 2019, 11:37 PM

    @Random_paddy: you would say that would you? Good man,

    1
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    Mute Steven Moens
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:50 PM

    The Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, aka the Magdalene Laundries, aka Ruhama…if I need anyone to comment on morality and legal issues you’ll be the last I’ll come looking for an answer to. Any chance of starting the asset disposal to compensate your victim’s anytime soon? In a way it makes sense you’re harping on the way you are. Nobody in Ireland has the same level of expertise when it comes to abuse and human trafficking…. .

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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:03 PM

    @Steven Moens: Haha awesome.

    65
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 6th 2019, 1:53 PM

    @Steven Moens: The crazy thing is the likes of these groups are forming policy in the country, they should be banned not listened to……nuts to think we are still in the grips of these oppressive religious nutjobs with their twisted logic…..some day we will rid ourselves of them all once and for all!

    20
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    Mute Stephen Duffy
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:33 PM

    It should be legalised… their body; their choice…!!!

    While I’d never seek the service I don’t think the state should intervene in a transaction between two consenting adults..

    200
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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Jan 5th 2019, 11:32 PM

    @Stephen Duffy: that’s true, but they should come down very hard on trafficking and servitude, rather than the escort activity itself.
    The deeper underground they drive it, the deeper it goes into the comfort zone of the criminal organizations.

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    Mute Stephen Duffy
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    Jan 6th 2019, 7:15 AM

    @Greg Blake: absolutely; and that is one of the most compelling and cogent argument from legalising the occupation..

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    Mute Siobhan Rosemary
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    Jan 6th 2019, 9:32 AM

    @Stephen Duffy: 80% are not consenting so should we not try and protect them ?

    1
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    Mute Jensen Bhroin
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    Jan 6th 2019, 3:13 PM

    @Siobhan Rosemary: the 80% figure doesn’t come from anywhere except a conversation someone had with a sex worker once? It’s not based on impartial research. Of course trafficking and coersion are wrong and should be prevented but relying on groundless figures won’t help understand that issue or prevent it and neither does criminalising buyers

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    Mute Stephen Duffy
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    Jan 6th 2019, 6:32 PM

    @Siobhan Rosemary: again… this is another reason for legalisation. When legal everybody in the business will be there willingly.. it’s when it’s pushed underground that exploitation takes placed. Let them operate in the open, pay taxes and benefit from the full protection of the law. It will also assist public health..

    10
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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:40 PM

    It’s almost like prohibition doesn’t work…. Hmmm

    195
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    Mute Martello Mulligan
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:12 PM

    Defending the legislation, Labour party TD, Ivana Bacik said, “We spoke to a woman working in sex industry. When I asked her how many of her colleagues operate of their own free will, she said 20%. As legislators, we have to provide for the 80%.”

    Ivana is a Senator – not a TD. She is an elite academic type so she knows well she is being disingenuous by quoting one person to get the 20% and 80% figures and then treating them as fact. This is why people voted for Trump – they prefer his bare-faced lies to the type of sly lying of the academic elites. Perhaps if she changed her name to Ivanka she might get elected as a TD.

    226
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    Mute the-baldie-lad
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:57 PM

    @Martello Mulligan: what’s your point? Because you don’t like bacik you think…? What exactly in relation to the central topic of this article.

    22
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    Mute Martello Mulligan
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:26 PM

    @the-baldie-lad: It’s a comment, teacher, it doesn’t have to be to the central topic. But I’ll indulge you anyhow: Senator Bacik is a supporter of the legislation and is being disingenuous – deliberately – therefore it calls in to question the integrity of the Act. As one comment here mentioned why does the Act not provide for the prosecution of both parties. I’m not saying I agree with that comment just that if the proponents of the law are falsifying or careless with the facts then the Act itself is suspect.

    I did go on to make a larger point – forgive me if that is not on the curriculum – which is that elite academic types such as Senator Bacik are just as bad as Trump even though their lies and obfuscations are “cleverer.”

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    Mute Michael farrelly
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:29 PM

    @the-baldie-lad: it’s pretty obvious. Are you dim ?

    44
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    Mute Gaye D
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    Jan 7th 2019, 9:59 AM

    @Martello Mulligan:
    For Bacik see page 24
    http://www.ihrec.ie/download/doc/reaserch_prostitution.doc

    2
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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:04 PM

    Did any of the sites mentioned pay for the infomercial?

    140
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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Jan 5th 2019, 7:44 PM

    @Winston Smith: link for Escort Ireland doesn’t work

    81
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    Mute erotik-date.ch
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    Jan 23rd 2019, 7:23 AM

    @Dick Face: it also seems like new sites similar to escort-ireland are popping up… they should legalise this sex business it will not go away… https://paysex.net/

    3
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    Mute Francis O Toole Art
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:12 PM

    New Zealand became the first country in the world to decriminalize sex work in June 2003, with the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA).
    The legislation is designed to safeguard the human rights of sex workers, protect them from exploitation and promote their welfare, health and safety.

    Five years after its implementation, New Zealand’s Ministry of Justice ordered a comprehensive assessment of the PRA’s impact on sex work in the country.

    The 2008 investigation by the Prostitution Law Review Committee concluded that “the vast majority of people in the sex industry are better off under the PRA than they were previously”.

    Contrary to what critics predicted, the researchers found little change in the number of sex workers and no increase in levels of trafficking following decriminalization.With some research pointing to a downward trend
    Research submitted to the review committee by the University of Otago and New Zealand’s Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC) found that the majority of sex workers “articulated increased power” in their negotiations with clients and management post-decriminalization, and felt more supported by the legal system.

    Of the sex workers who responded to the NZPC survey, 96% said the law made them feel safer.

    The researchers concluded that decriminalization had resulted in “few, if any, negative consequences” in terms of the health and safety of sex workers, and had not led to an increase in their numbers.

    “Despite the oft-repeated claims of its shortcomings, the academic evidence that has been gathered so far clearly supports the New Zealand decriminalization model as an ideal starting point,” says criminology expert Dr Armstrong.

    “No law is perfect, but this is the best approach we have so far for supporting sex worker rights and facilitating access to justice,” she adds. “There is no alternative worth pursuing.”

    Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights

    https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/amnesty-international-publishes-policy-and-research-on-protection-of-sex-workers-rights/

    Sex Work Criminalization Is Barking Up the Wrong Tree
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5529480/

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    Mute Chemical Brothers
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:50 PM

    @Francis O Toole Art: Wonder why did the unions in Ireland join forces with Catholic Church on this one?

    38
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    Mute George Salter
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    Jan 6th 2019, 1:42 AM

    @Chemical Brothers: Because both groups dislike citizens being able to run their lives without their input/control.

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    Mute Steven Moens
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    Jan 6th 2019, 10:01 AM

    @Francis O Toole Art: what can be done legally in broad daylight generally is not a place where organised crime wants to be. The leverage for coercion and exploitation diminishes quite substantially if the need for covert carry on disappears.

    19
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    Mute Dara O'Brien
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:02 PM

    Stupid law anyway. The sellers are no longer prosecuted, just the buyers – that’s like letting the drug dealers off the hook and just arresting the junkies. If it’s illegal then arrest both parties, other than that, legalise and regulate it.

    238
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    Mute Jesus Christ
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:26 PM

    Phew! Glad to have these religious organisations to tell us what’s right and wrong.

    79
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    Mute Adam O'Donoghue
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    Jan 6th 2019, 12:48 AM

    @Jesus Christ: Sure I hear you’re fond of the ladies of the night yourself !

    19
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    Mute john doe
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:17 PM

    Surely the best way to deal with the portion of sex workers who do so against their will is to legalise and regulate the whole thing.
    Then whatever government department areresponsible for the regulation can call to the brothels, interview the workers to make sure they are ok.

    This strange law criminalising one of the parties stinks of moral crusade rather than sensible legislation.

    102
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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Jan 5th 2019, 10:49 PM

    @john doe: Sellers of sex are good, buyers of sex are bad… mkaaaayyy? Utterly moronic.

    57
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    Mute Paul O Faolain
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    Jan 6th 2019, 12:39 PM

    @Ronan Sexton: thats why were called tbe stupid Irish

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    Mute Charles Williams
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:53 PM

    Sex have always been bought and sold, Royal families, farms, business etc all depended on a payment in the form of an arranged marriage, the possibility of producing a heir or just for the fun of it. It was the first service on earth put up for sale and will be the last to survive, human nature will make sure of that and no law will ever change that human drive.

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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    Jan 6th 2019, 9:21 AM

    @Charles Williams: Sure we can control the drive look at the priests in the country sure they controlled it well didn’t they?….oh hold on maybe not……

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    Mute PC Principal
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:15 PM

    Thanks for providing some useful websites!

    46
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    Mute tommytukamomo
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:40 PM

    Wife finds out husband is seeing Prostitutes.

    Wife, ” Why are you seeing Prostitutes ” !!
    Husband, “You never have sex with me ”
    Wife, “You never said you were willing to pay for it “

    140
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    Mute niamh ryan
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:01 PM

    One “reviewer” called the interaction very mechanical and awkward. Maybe, just maybe, that’s because she(or he) didn’t enjoy it, could possibly have been there under duress and most likely wouldn’t have sex with you in a million years had you not paid her

    56
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    Mute dublincomments
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:15 PM

    @niamh ryan: presumably others he tried weren’t ‘awkward and mechanical’ and hence she was useless at her job?

    She might need more training

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    Mute Darcy
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:21 PM

    @dublincomments: or maybe he was a skin flint and just paid for the basics and that’s what he got .

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    Mute niamh ryan
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:25 PM

    @dublincomments: or maybe he needs more training on how to get a woman who doesn’t charge by the hour

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    Mute Porter Mechanic
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:46 PM

    @niamh ryan: maybe he never clean his lad

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    Mute EDun
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    Jan 6th 2019, 8:48 AM

    @niamh ryan: he needs to pay for dinner and drinks for a CHANCE of a ride you mean?

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    Mute niamh ryan
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    Jan 6th 2019, 2:14 PM

    @EDun: God forbid he put in a bit of effort

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    Mute dublincomments
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:10 PM

    Spain isn’t technically outside Irish jurisdiction. Spain IS outside Irish jurisdiction.

    Just block the phone numbers on the site after a quick check.

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    Mute Timbob Slip-ons Dennehy
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    Jan 6th 2019, 4:53 AM

    It should be legalised, why don’t they make gambling illegal, it is far worse, 6 different bookmakers on the same street in places, tell me what is not trafficked and smuggled in to the island, Not any of the following, drugs, weapons, fireworks, knock off clothes, cars, qualifications, ivory, endangered species, Pakistani’s? Religion?, what is being smuggled out of Ireland?

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    Mute Ciaran Fairley
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:16 PM

    I wonder how many of you clicked on the links and/or visited the websites

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Jan 5th 2019, 10:48 PM

    @Dick Face: Do they charge you twice because of your face?

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    Mute TechBuzz Ireland
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    Jan 6th 2019, 12:17 AM

    Seems more like an add with the numerous repeated links. Oldest trade in the world. Nothing will ever be done.

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    Mute Stephen Nix
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    Jan 6th 2019, 1:08 AM

    A woman killing a unborn child in her body is choice but having sex isnt? Crazy world we live in.

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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Jan 7th 2019, 8:05 PM

    “It’s not about them, it’s about the 80%. It’s about ‘Do I have a right to go online and find an 18-year-old Romanian woman, or girl to do whatever?’”
    First, I’d like to see the data supporting the 80% claim.
    Second, it’s not the state’s business to dictate what people do with their private parts, where and with whom, when both partners are consenting adults. Furthermore, taxpayer money should not be spent on a witch hunt on behalf of religious lunatics, radical feminists and various NGOs.
    The way the above question is phrased confirms a long held suspicion: the said law has less to do with women’s rights or human trafficking, and more with middle aged Irish women looking to close down what they see as the last avenue of guilty pleasure for their husbands, boyfriends, sons and brothers.
    I can see why certain people find it appalling, but that doesn’t mean we should legislate opinion.
    Nobody even addresses the core issue anymore, i.e. why so many men still do it in spite of the new legislation.
    I guess it’s far tougher to talk about the growing disconnect between genders, than pulling statistics out of thin air.

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    Mute Al Fresco
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    Jan 6th 2019, 11:40 PM

    Legalize it and make it safe.

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    Mute Ciaran Fairley
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    Jan 5th 2019, 8:16 PM

    I wonder how many of you clicked on the links and/or visited the websites

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Jan 6th 2019, 1:40 AM

    Dumbest law on the books

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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Jan 7th 2019, 8:22 PM

    And speaking of Romania, as well as Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria (and most Eastern European states), the citizens of those countries have complete freedom of movement within EU.
    Add to that low cost flights and the fact that most young people have at least a basic grasp of English language, and human trafficking organization have lost their raison d’être (unless we’re talking about kidnapping).
    Just because some of those women arrive here by enlisting the help of an agency or a more experienced friend, that doesn’t mean they aren’t fully aware of what they’re getting into.
    Try as they might, but the likes of Ruhama don’t have a case when they try to convince the public that these women are some innocent children lured away to an uncertain fate by a predator stalking them in the dark. Certainly those of central and eastern European extraction aren’t.

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    Mute Gaye D
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    Jan 7th 2019, 8:36 AM

    20% working of their own free will is actually quite good compared to the 15% working of their own free will in the more general sense:
    https://news.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/212045/world-broken-workplace.aspx
    I guess the shortfall must be down to the extra free time and money sex workers have to find and train for jobs they do want to do?

    As I hear it, if you ask them (instead of making up some old bogus) 98% of sexworkers reject the Nordic Model that justifies such sky high salaries and expenses for Ruhama (incidentally their parent company CAP International of which Sarah Benson is chair is registered in France and has yet to file accounts).

    Nobody seems to have gathered any statistics on the percentage of sex worker who want less client and less money, but common sense suggests it will be really small.

    There are no viable “exit services” in Ireland, Ruhama cornered that market long ago and, however badly they want to get out, nobody can be expected to cope with the cognitive dissonance generated by Ruhama’s decades of deceit and misrepresentation of the life they have actually lived upon which their real memories and opinions are founded.

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Jan 5th 2019, 9:46 PM

    Those darn farmers wives lol.

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    Mute Stan Papusa
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    Jan 8th 2019, 10:42 AM

    @Seamus Mac: let’s stop invoking this nonsense shall we?
    There are plenty of things I wouldn’t want my daughter (if I had one) to do, but that doesn’t mean we should make them illegal.
    There’s a difference between not embracing a certain lifestyle/choice, and stigmatizing (or even worse, criminalizing) people who do.
    I for one am one of those old fashioned people who believe a certain degree of ‘live and let live’ and ‘mind your own business’ is needed in a healthy society.
    Otherwise let’s outlaw sex outside marriage, sugar daddies, gold diggers, adult movies, strip clubs, etc.

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