A letter to Alan Shatter (part two)

This morning I had a response from the Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter.

Dear Ms. Lee,

I refer to your recent email concerning the future direction of legislation on prostitution.

In June 2012, the Minister published a discussion document on the future direction of legislation on prostitution. The purpose of the discussion document is to facilitate a public consultation process. On its publication, the Minister referred the discussion document to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The joint committee conducted its consultation process independently and published its report on 27 June.

The Minister has not yet had the opportunity to fully consider its contents.

The report of the Joint Committee and the views expressed at a conference on prostitution hosted by the Department last October will be fully considered in the framing of any necessary legislative proposals to be submitted to Government in due course.

Yours sincerely,



Chris Quattrociocchi

______________________

Private Secretary to the

Minister for Justice and Equality

I have just sent this email by way of response.

Dear Mr.Quattrociocchi,

Thank you for your email and I note what you say.

In considering fully the recommendations of the Joint Committee, it is worth noting that the voices of those who will be impaired by the legislation, sex workers, were for a large part of the consultation process, excluded.

I should be much obliged if you would ask Minister Shatter to have a brief meeting with me in Dublin.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Lee
International Union of Sex Workers

I will of course update as and when any further developments occur.

LL xx