The government is calling for an urgent ban on sex for rent exploitation

However, no legislation has yet been introduced to ban the practice, and online advertisements regularly appear on a number of websites offering reduced or no rent in exchange for sex.

NWC director Orla O’Connor said women in precarious housing situations are “forced to choose between sexual exploitation and homelessness”.

She said: “Women across the country, in rural and urban areas, are facing this terrible situation, but despite repeated government promises, there is still no legislation to tackle this abhorrent form of exploitation.

“The impact this has on women cannot be overstated, turning the place where they should feel safest – their home – into a place of sexual exploitation.”

Stigmatization

In May, the NWC published a report on sex for hire in Ireland, calling on the government to ensure that sex for hire proposals were considered a sexual offense and removed from sex purchase laws to reduce stigmatization and to avoid low reporting. This occurs in other jurisdictions where pursuing a conviction requires the victim to identify themselves as a ‘prostitute’.

An amendment banning sex for hire in the rental sector was intended to be included in the Criminal Justice (Sexual Offenses and Trafficking in Persons) Bill 2023, completing its passage through the Oireachtas before the summer recess. However, work on the amendment was not completed in time to meet the bill’s deadline and work continues, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said last month in response to a parliamentary question.

Efforts to introduce legislation against this practice include the Sex for Hire Ban Act introduced by the Social Democrats two years ago, and the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Sex for Hire) Act 2023, which was introduced into the Dáil by Sinn Féin earlier this year. The Social Democrats’ legislation failed to pass pre-legislative scrutiny.

Ms O’Connor said: “The Government has been aware of this issue for years and legislation to tackle this problem would be included in the Sexual Offenses and Human Trafficking Act. That bill has come and gone, and there is still no solution for these women. The 2025 Budget provided little assurance that the housing crisis will be addressed in a meaningful way, and this is the underlying context in which sex-for-hire exploitation can take place. Even with legislation, until the housing and homelessness crisis is addressed, women will continue to be sexually exploited by unscrupulous landlords.”

Feargha Ní Bhroin, NWC’s Violence Against Women Officer and author of the report published in May, said the research found that students and migrant women are particularly vulnerable to offers of sex against women, “due to their particular difficulties in obtaining access to suitable accommodation’.

She added: “Tenants who rent a room from a live-in landlord are also particularly vulnerable and lack the legal protections of other rental agreements. As students return to university this fall, there is an urgent need to ensure that all women are protected from this type of exploitation.”

Ann-Marie O’Reilly, National Advocacy Manager at Threshold, will also speak at today’s briefing at Leinster House. She said limited housing options could “put some of the most vulnerable at risk of exploitation by unscrupulous actors”.

While acknowledging that legislation can play a role in protecting people from exploitation, she said: “Ensuring access to safe, quality and affordable housing for all members of society is the only sure way to protect the most vulnerable .”

Denise Charlton, chief executive of Community Foundation Ireland, said the inability of policy makers to act in this area so far has been “hugely difficult to understand as the body of evidence grows”.