That’s jail for a lot of Longford men so.

Longford the new Amsterdam .

More shite from the ICI. Thgey have been very vocal in the last few months, must be coming up to Government funding time. These are the people who only a few weeks ago highlighted the case of a 16 year old boy who had been trafficked here and in fairness he is doing well but with the support of tax payers money. Of course no questions asked as to how he got here or who brought him. The same people who have a program to integrate new arrivals, which is fair enough but it’s for children who are trafficked here without their parents. Again no questions asked. The same people who want an open door policy which actually facilitates this sort of activity and encourages it. If your application for residency is turned down don’t worry the ICI will show you how to use or legal system to challenge the deportation order right up to the Supreme Court and it won’t cost you a thing. Sure the millions that it costs each year will be picked up by the tax payer.

They want to end the sex trade! Are they serious? You could find sex workers in Saudi Arabia and they don’t just fine you for sex outside marriage! They want to stop something that has being going on since the dawn of man, it’s even mentioned in the Bible.

To be honest if I was a trafficker Ireland would be my country of choice, I mean look how easy it is. Open door policy, no fingerprint scanners, no tracking of people. Long delays in processing and if someone disappears no-one cares because they assume that they have used NI as a way to get into the UK. Best of all if you disagree in any way with these people you are branded a racist and we wouldn’t want that now would we?

Better off to legalise prostitution. Sex workers could then have legitimate employment rights.

New Zealand’s experience: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/29/gender.law

There’s two very separate issues here – human trafficking and prostitution. County Councils are not known as bastions of intellectual prowess and if previous experience is anything to go by they’ll just as easily give a yea or nay to something on the basis of the quality of the wine at lunch. Human trafficking happens in areas outside of the sex trade. This has all the classic Irish hallmarks of rushing towards legislation without proper research and debate.

The Turn of the Red Light campaign is asking that payments for sex be banned “in line with measures being taken in other European countries”.

What other European countries are those? Sweden, Norway and Iceland. That’s hardly a groundswell of support for this kind of law.

Also Michelle Hennessy’s article is biased as she fails to canvas an opinion from the rival Turn Off The Blue campaign which campaigns to decriminalize the adult sex work industry and de-stigmatize it and which campaigns for the human, legal, civil, labour, health and safety rights of all adult sex workers on a par with all other workers.

The Turn Off The Red Light campaign, and its constituent organizations such as Ruhama and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, are not interested in talking to sex workers because they do not accept that they have a legitimate voice. They consider all sex work to be rape and torture. They conflate all sex work with trafficking. They are authoritarians who seek to ban organized prostitution across the country in much the same way as Frank Duff and his Legion of Mary successfully campaigned to close down the Monto red light district in Dublin in the 1920s.

The last few days have seen local councils being immensely pro-active. First Cork’s call for legalising gay marriage and now Longford looking to eliminate this debasing ‘profession.’ Wonder what’s next?

Ruhama are duping councils with their feminist propaganda again.

Criminalizing the buyer would entail gender profiling and give one gender preference over another resulting in inequality, polarization and drive the business further underground. Can’t the TORL see this?

Let’s not beat around the bush it will drive it further underground, it’s also possible that rapes and attacks will rise , and do you think that it’s only the low life that pay for sex??? , far from it….it’s the well to do that decide which brothel gets closed and which says open or should I call them the Gentleman’s Club.

Can’t help but read these poems @matt black why not put these on a poetry thread .

Personally, I think the current laws function properly. As Henry Ford once said, if it works don’t fix it.

I looked up the political party composition of Leitrim and Longford county councils on electionireland.org . Leitrim: Fianna Fail 10 seats, Fine Gael 8 seats, “others” 2 seats; Longford: Fine Gael 11 seats, Fianna Fail 8 seats, “others” 2 seats. Says it all.

All these types of suggestions are based on the nonsensical religious beliefs of members of intellectual free zones.

Men that have to pay for it aren’t men. They’re sad pathetic little creatures with more money than self respect.

Prostitutes in Sweden pay taxes and can claim state benefits including sick days and also take parental leave. So on one hand the Government there are happy to take taxes off the seller, but the purchaser is criminalised. Are TORL suggesting the Irish Government do the same here?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-05/sweden-s-tax-paying-prostitutes-win-right-to-paid-sick-leave.html

If it was a straightforward matter Alan Shatter would not have initiated a consultation process which will include a conference in the autumn.

This process enables everyone to have their say, it’s no use just slagging off the NGO’s and their one-sided arguments here on theJournal.ie, if you want to have your voice heard you should make a submission.

Am I missing something?

“We have examined the experience abroad and firmly believe that the only way to end a sex trade and end the threats, abuse and violence against women is to target supply,”

Does that mean they have ended the sex trades in these other countries who implemented the same measures? Name me one country where they have ended the sex trade?

I fully support actions which will end trafficing, abuse & violence against women but these actions won’t make a blind bit of difference in my opinion.
It’s time we started to come up with some new ideas in how to tackle these issues…sadly our local governments are as clueless & incompetent as our national government.

When I was young and had no sense
In far-off Mandalay
I lost my heart to a Burmese girl
As lovely as the day.

Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,
Her teeth were ivory;
I said, “for twenty silver pieces,
Maiden, sleep with me”.

She looked at me, so pure, so sad,
The loveliest thing alive,
And in her lisping, virgin voice,
Stood out for twenty-five.

There’s a lot of professional criminals involved in running Ireland’s sex-trade. ‘Independent’ hookers are subjected to violence by pimps. Pimps are also behind campaigns to give the sex-trade a main-stream, legitimate image. http://www.dilloninvestigates.com/index_files/McCormick_pimp_prostitution.htm

Longford brazzzers I’d rather a Nigerian aids victim