This article is from page 1 of the 2014-10-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
AS MANY as 20 women and young girls are selling sex in Clare every day – many of whom are the victims of sex traf f ck ing. That is the opinion of Cllr Mary Howard (FG), who yesterday said that young women are being brought into Ireland to work in the sex industry – many of whom don’t ever realise what country they are in.
Clare County Council yesterday passed a motion calling on the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald (FG), to introduce legislation crim- inalisation of the purchase of sex, rather than the sale of sex.
“Here in Ennis we have about 20 girls and young women working in the sex trade. The average age for women entering into prostitution is 14 years of age. They’re young women; someone’s sister, mother or daughter,” she said.
“I believe in social justice and I believe that the system is controlled, by men, for men, and I believe that we in this room have a obligation to tackle that.”