THE GOVERNMENT HAS confirmed that it is to make it a criminal offence to pay for sex.

The move follows a recommendation from the Oireachtas Justice Committee that the purchase of sexual service should be outlawed.

Justice Minster Frances Fitzgerald will make the formal announcement of the plan on Thursday when she will provide details of the forthcoming legislation.

It’s also been confirmed that there are no plans to change the age of consent from its current age of 17.

The criminalisation of the purchase of sex was recently introduced in Northern Ireland and has also been enacted in parts of the United States and in Canada. It’s been given the moniker of the ‘Swedish model’ because of its roots in the Nordic countries.

Last year in their ‘Report on the Review of the Legislation on Prostitution in Ireland’, the Oireachtas Justice Committee made several recommendations including that the purchase of sexual services should be made illegal.

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