Sir, – It is disappointing that Wendy Lyon (Letters, September 4th) sees fit to stoop to personalised attacks in opposing our 2017 law reform criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland.
If she or any of her fellow campaigners took the time to read the unanimous 2013 report of the Oireachtas Justice Committee on prostitution law which recommended that historic legal change, they would see that, as legislators, we acted out of deep concern about the lived realities of the predominantly migrant women engaged in prostitution in Ireland. Supported by the many trade unions and NGOs which urged us to make this change, along with legislators in a range of other countries, we took an evidence-based decision to address the serious harms done to women exploited through prostitution by tackling demand. In so doing, we took a stance against the commodification of women’s bodies, and against populist or neo-liberal arguments for deregulating the sex industry. – Yours, etc,
Senator IVANA BACIK,
Seanad Éireann,
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Leinster House,
Dublin 2.