A COMMITTEE EXAMINING legislation relating to prostitution will hear from a range of experts today, including award-winning journalist Paul Maguire who produced a hard hitting documentary on the Irish sex trade last year.
The Minister for Justice and Equality referred a discussion document on the future direction of Prostitution Legislation to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality last year.
The Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality then invited written submissions from interested groups or individuals in relation to this review: it received more than 850 submissions.
The Committee will continue its fourth hearing on submissions received in relation to the review of prostitution legislation today, with Committee Chairman David Stanton TD saying members were “particularly interested” in getting Maguire’s perspective.
“Last year, the award-winning RTÉ journalist produced and presented the Profiting From Prostitution documentary on prostitution in Irish towns which dealt with the serious issues of criminality and the exploitation of women involved in the sex industry.
“Given his investigations and reporting on this area, we will be particularly interested in getting his perspective on our legislation,” said Stanton.
“This will be the fourth in our series of hearings as we engage with a wide variety of people and organisations working with those involved in prostitution to get their views on what changes they would like to see as part of any review.”
Stanton added that, as part of their work in the area, members of the Committee have already met with fellow parliamentarians in Sweden to discuss their experiences of the drafting and implementation of its legislation on prostitution which “criminalised the purchase of sexual services rather than the sale of sexual services”.
Paul Maguire was appointed editor of the new multi-media RTÉ Investigations Unit in December 2012.
The meeting will start in Committee Room 2, Leinster House at 2pm, and can be followed live here.
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