A conference on human trafficking and sexual exploitation has heard calls for changes in the law here to make the person looking for the services of prostitutes culpable.
Ireland had been identified by international research as a major transit site and destination for trafficked sex workers, the conference was told.
There was a lack of legislation here protecting the victim and targeting the trafficker enslaved children and adult females, it was stated.
However, the key to tackling the growing trafficking sex trade here was "to cut out the demand", speakers said.
The public was urged to challenge accepted notions that corporate outings and stag party visits to lapdance clubs and striptease artists were "normal" .
" is an abuse of the dignity of a human being. It reduces her to a commodity," said Sr Noreen O'Shea, a Good Shepherd Sister who works with Ruhama, the organisation which helps prostitutes here.
The conference at the Institute of Technology Tralee was chaired by chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council Peter O'Mahony and attended by gardaí, immigration officers and clergy including Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy.
It was organised by Tralee Refugee Support Services and other groups who are setting up a campaign against what is felt to be a growing phenomenon in Kerry.
The new Criminal Law (Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Offences) Bill 2006, currently in process, addressed some of the law enforcement issues arising from trafficking but it failed to meet international and European standards on the protection and needs of trafficked persons, the conference heard.
Research at the John Hopkins University in the US found the "trafficking mafia" had identified Ireland as a growth area for human trafficking. It was "an easy port of entry and an affluent country", Sr O'Shea said.
Her organisation has helped some 200 trafficked women and girls here. This was just "the tip of the iceberg", she said.
Victims were rarely allowed stay in one area for more than a week, lest they form relationships with the local community, she said.
"Change the law. In Swedish law, it is the person looking for the services that gets prosecuted," Sr O'Shea urged. "We have to crack the notion that it's outsiders who use these women . . . that our beloved Irish men don't use trafficked girls."
Mary Crilly of the Stop Sex Trafficking campaign said discussion here was often sidetracked into calls for legalising prostitution.
"Legalising prostitution does nothing for the women. It's really to protect the men," she said.
Gardaí said the problem with current legislation was women themselves had to complain. From rural and often religious backgrounds, they were often ashamed and reluctant to ask for help, said Garda Insp John P O'Reilly, who has spent 15 months working with the UN's anti-trafficking unit in Bosnia.