A LABOUR SENATOR will tomorrow launch a Bill seeking to ban “sex for rent” adverts.

The Bill, being launched tomorrow by Senator Laura Harmon, aims to make it an offence to seek sexual services in exchange for a reduced rent or in lieu of rent.

She said the Bill will “tackle a growing and deeply exploitative practice in the Irish housing market”.

It will seek fines of up to €50,000 for those found guilty of advertising rental accommodation in return for sex.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Harmon remarked that she is “increasingly aware of a growing trend of people using nothing short of predatory tactics to demand sex from tenants in lieu of rent”.

She described it as a “sinister and deeply exploitative practice that must be stamped out”.

“We must ensure that there are real consequences for those who engage in this kind of abuse,” Harmon added.

Explaining the practise, Harmon said: “We often see these ads in ambiguous terms on rentals websites and once someone enquires about a property, seedy messages about sharing a bed or an expectation to have sex with the landlord start to emerge.

“This is not just unacceptable – it must be outlawed.”

She added that those who engages in this are “calculated in their approach” and “predominantly target migrants, women and young people”.

Meanwhile, research by the Irish Council for International Students in 2023 found that one in 20 international students had either been offered a sex-for-rent proposal, or had seen such an arrangement advertised during their search for accommodation.

“As more young people experience the hard edge of the housing crisis, this kind of exploitation is only becoming more widespread,” said Harmon, who called on Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to act and end this practice.

Previous Bills

This is the third opposition Bill to be brought forward on the issue.

In 2022, the Social Democrats introduced a Bill that would have created an offence of requiring or accepting sex as a condition of accommodation.

Cian O’Callaghan later remarked that the government “let it go committee stage and then it was killed off at committee stage”.

“This is often what happens to pieces of legislation that the government don’t necessarily want to oppose but then they don’t work to get it progressed,” said O’Callaghan.

And in August 2023, Sinn Féin introduced a similar Bill but there has been no movement on it as yet.

Eoin Ó Broin said at the time that he was hopeful the legislation would be introduced by September or October of that year.

“This is a very short addition to Section 19 of the act. If the government wants to amend it, we have no problem with that whatsoever,” said Ó Broin at the time.

He added: “Renters need the full protection of the law and seeking or advertising sex for rent must be an offence in legislation carrying significant punishment.” 

Speaking in 2023, then Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she was “committed to making sure that we address this and where there are loops or gaps in law that we can address that.”

McEntee added that she wanted to get legislation through “as quickly as possible” to address the issue but that it would take time to make sure that the “right type of law” is constructed.