Ireland passes law that makes it a crime to buy s*x

The republic of Ireland has passed a law which is aimed at tackling sex trafficking and protecting hundreds of vulnerable women in prostitution, therefore making it a crime to buy sex. 

The new bill which came into force on Wednesday is designed to punish men who use prostitutes without criminalising those driven into prostitution, a decision that follows in the footstep of countries like Northern Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

Under the new law, anyone convicted of using a prostitute in Ireland faces a maximum fine of €500 for a first offence and €1,000 for a second while anyone who uses a trafficked woman faces up to five years in jail.

“This law will, for the first time in our history, firmly place legal responsibility on the exploiters rather than the exploited,” said campaigner Rachel Moran, who worked in prostitution for seven years from the age of 15, and has led calls for reform.

“It will have the effect of educating future generations … as to the simple wrongfulness of buying your way inside someone else’s body, and it will finally frame prostitution as the act of violence that it is.”