By Staff Reporter

Pimps, traffickers and other criminals running Irish prostitution rings are a step closer to bankruptcy with widespread political support for the Sexual Offences Bill during a debate in the Seanad, the Immigrant Council of Ireland has said.

The organisation added that the ongoing political consensus on the bill was necessary to ensure that Ireland joins the growing international trend of targeting sex buyers rather than sellers.

“Prostitution is a violent, exploitative and abusive criminal enterprise – and it is clear that the overwhelmingly majority of Senators have accepted the evidence put forward by the 73 Irish organisations which make up the Turn Off The Red Light Campaign,” said Brian Killoran, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

At the Seanad debate, the Government committed to decriminalise those involved in prostitution to bring Ireland’s laws into line with those in Northern Ireland and Nordic countries.

Killoran said the ICI welcomes this “but will study the amendment in more detail in the coming days”, adding that “it is now important that the momentum behind the bill is maintained and that the laws become reality early in 2016.”

Denise Charlton, an anti-trafficking consultant with ICI, described the widespread political support as a clear indication that “the clock is now ticking for thugs with multi-million euro criminal empires built from the proceeds of prostitution and sex trafficking.”

She continued: “Senators and TDs now have a duty to act on the overwhelming evidence which has been placed before them, including the experience of every frontline agency supporting victims of sex trafficking in Ireland, and make sex buyer laws a reality in weeks.”