Ireland

This chapter attempts to account for multiple aspects of the sex trade in Ireland by focusing on the historical evolution of prostitution laws and by exploring the context prior to the 2014 bill. It describes a simple internet survey of national print media coverage in a one-year period from 2013 to 2014, which reveals a marked concentration on violence and exploitation in the sex trade. The chapter presents a picture, more partial and indicative than comprehensive, from the available research, addressing demographics, health and safety issues, the impact of policing or regime implementation, and the prostitution market itself. The Act incorporates a sex purchase ban into Ireland by criminalizing the purchasing of sex. The chapter explores the Turn off the Red Light (ToRL) campaign, led principally by a Dublin-based NGO and the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI), and which paved the way for neoabolitionism's support within and without parliament.