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THE IRISH COUNCIL for International Students (ICOS) has welcomed a Sinn Féin Bill that proposes making ‘sex-for-rent’ arrangements illegal.
This Bill seeks to amend the Residential Tenancies Act, making it an offence under Section 19 of the Act for a landlord to seek sex in lieu of rent or to advertise for such arrangements.
New sanctions or penalties are not proposed as part of Sinn Féin’s amendment, as instead the offence would be dealt with under the existing penalties in the act which includes fines of up to €20,000.
The party’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said today that some groups of women “are particularly vulnerable to this appalling practice, including migrant women and students”.
“I will seek to progress this Bill to Second Stage as soon as possible and look forward to full Dáil support to ban this unacceptable exploitation.”
ICOS Executive Director Laura Harmon, said that “predatory behaviour” from some landlords is “one of the most insidious effects of the housing crisis”.
“This is a form of sexual exploitation, and it must be tackled.
“We at the Irish Council for International Students are calling once more on the government to introduce legislation that will address exploitation in the rental market.
“It is a disgrace that we still do not have legislation on this area and that vulnerable international students and people in general are being exploited and targeted.’’
Justice Minister Helen McEntee said in November that sex-for-rent proposals will be criminalised under new sexual offences and human trafficking legislation.
The proposals, currently in the early stages of the Dáil process, would amend parts of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 to outlaw sex-for-rent practices.
The amendments would be contained in the section regarding consent, she said.
The Government’s Bill passed committee stage in November.
The Department of Justice has said today that McEntee “has been clear that any behaviour from accommodation providers seeking to use their position to prey on vulnerable people is completely unacceptable”.
Research by ICOS 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.
The Sinn Féin Bill also comes months after RTÉ Investigates broadcast a report looking into sex for rent in Ireland.
The report revealed what it is like to come face-to-face with the people posting sex for rent ads in Ireland – and showed how some seek sex, from often vulnerable prospective tenants, in exchange for reduced or free accommodation.
In February 2022, Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan, the party’s housing spokesperson, tabled a similar Bill.
It would have created an offence of requiring or accepting sex as a condition of accommodation, with penalties of up to seven years in prison or a €50,000 fine.
It reached committee stage, but did not progress further as it did not have the support of Government.
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This country really has turned into a Slum.
Why am I not surprised it’s beyond a joke at this stage
@Kenny Jones: sex always has been and always will be a currency……
I remember a Rathmines landlord having this kind of “arrangement” with a tenant as far back as 1992. He had a wife and kids in Navan at the time. Not a new phenomenon at all.
@Jane Gunnigan: The wife in Navan will now be checking on her husband’s property in Rathmines I992. Thing could get hot!
@Jane Gunnigan: Durable relationship
@Patrice Ahern: The marriage would be considered a durable relationship and exploitative relationship would not… really isn’t that difficult.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I wouldn’t bet on the marriage remaining a durable relationship either, and many, many are not.
@Thomas Sheridan: I would think that in the context of law that it would be especially in an scenario where it is in comparison to sex-for-rent arrangement.
Economists warned our political class that all the evidence internationally says that introducing rent caps, eviction bans etc etc in a market where the main issue is lack of supply will result in less supply, higher rents and they did not listen. SF are equally guilty as the main drum beaters for irresponsible policy. We need more politicians with engineering or science backgrounds, people who understand that words don’t create reality, and that cause leads to effect whether or not you wag your finger at it in the Dail. We need to build. Any policy to encourage building now is good. Any policy that discourages it is bad.
@Tom D: When it starts hurting FDI which must be close now they’ll start to do something. That’s all they understand.
@Tom D: We also need an electorate who will vote for such people – and telling the truth is not what people vote for. People vote to for money for nothing, basically. Daft policies come from daft politicians elected by said voters.
@Tom D: we also need less scammers and chancers claiming international protection
@Tom D: there is no lack of supply for houses in Ireland. The 2022 census listed 163,433 vacant properties in the country, most of them being in the Dublin region, with specialists saying this number could be over 180,000 in 2024. Saying there is a lack of supply is a bit of an oversimplification of the problem and doesn’t reflect the whole picture. While there is a shortage of available housing, there are a lot of reasons behind it, one of them being keeping the fallacy of housing crises to keep rent and property prices going up.
@Eduardo: One example of this is the apts by the ifsc at the Quays. The average occupancy level of some of those buildings is 60%. All apts are built to rent, but if landlords bring the rent down to increase occupancy, this will affect the prices of the other tenants, and bring down market evaluation in the area. So they keep a lower occupancy, and high rent. Nothing is as simple as the media portraits.
@Tom D: the Dail is full of Teachers (the only ones that have the time for canvassing) who have never ran anything but want to run the country!
A type of mania has set in. I got a notice for a 62% increase from what was previously a fair landlord. As young people work harder to satisfy this mania for a few blocks and a wooden roof, an unhealthy imbalance in society exists.
There is your survival of the fittest ( aggressive/greedy) with a younger generation playing along.
@Gerald Kelleher: The capitalist mania of taking advantage of anyone they can goes against what has, through the lens of evolution, made us a dominant species. You do yourself a disservice to equate the two.
No need to panic the government has the housing situation fully under control they have seen it worsen tremendously over the last 10 years and say if they are re-elected they will solve it this time. like they said the last time but this time they said they will,lessons learned by droves living in tents and inviting droves more in we will actually get to a stage that we may run out of tents as we have housing a great legacy by a government seeing the problems coming head on.
Will it also be illegal to offer sex in lieu of rent?
Vote no
Don’t make it an offence, make it a crime.
How do they get change back?
#your choice
How can they get away with advertising something like this? Bloody perverts.
If you have to sell your body so that you can study you would be better off forgetting college. No career is worth that.
This country has been in free-fall for years.. not surprised to read about this .There are plenty of schemers , scammers , strokers , shceisters , shady f#####s walking among us , that were born in this country .. yet still foreign nationals get demonised and scapegoated on a regular basis
have your say