Sir, – Your editorial (August 17th) on the case for protecting sex workers queried the validity of criminalising the client. I concur.
What will be the effect of criminalising the client? Not only will it damage the client, but will further damage the family unit. It will destroy relationships. It will turn a large number of reasonable, law abiding citizens into criminals.
One questions the rationale of people who wish to do this.
One questions also the practicality of making clients criminals.
The garda are resource-challenged and struggle to deal with “real criminals”.
Are we going to add an estimated 100,000 clients in Ireland to their burden. The Swedish model is predicated on identifying the client and giving them support and rehabilitation.
To put legislation on the statute book that has not a hope of being enforced degrades the rule of law and the legislators. There is a lack of realism here, that equals the lack of realism seen in those who feel that prostitution can be eliminated.
We should put protectionism above criminalisation. We should protect the sex workers from trafficking, violence, coercion and poor working conditions. We should protect the client from coercion and blackmail. That is the legislation we require, to protect all concerned.
We could wonder in the world of the Tinder app and dating sites, why people pay for sex when it is so widely available. But there will always be those for whom prostitutes offer solace.
As a genitourinary physician, one rarely sees infection arising from a prostitute contact – condom usage is the norm. They are professionals, they protect themselves and they protect their clients.
Criminalising the client may end up inhibiting them from seeking health checks and infection screening.
– Yours, etc,
Dr DEREK FREEDMAN
Ranelagh Village,
Dublin 6.