The Department for Justice is being asked to ban a web site that rates escorts.
Escort Ireland allows users review the women they've rented through the site.
It contains hundreds of reviews such as "knows how to treat a man" and "performed professionally".
One user in Ballsbridge says "Clear directions to an easy-to-find, clean apartment; Sexy Tania waiting, attired as requested; shower & drinks on offer."
Over 6,000 people have signed a petition asking Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and his Junior Minister David Stanton to take the site offline and ban ones like it.
Ruth Breslin is from Ruhama:
We have long been familiar with the activities of Escort Ireland and the review system. But I think it's great to get it out there in the public so people can see it for what it really is, in terms of the behaviour of sex buyers and the way in which they view the women they're buying; essentially as products, essentially as pieces of meat... and the really dehumanising way they're talking about these women."
The website insists that it “strictly offers business to business advertising services” and operates totally independently of the escorts that use it.
Insisting it is not an escort service, it notes that it does not accept payments on behalf of escorts or “act as any other type of intermediary.”
Services are offered with the caveat that escorts charge "for time and companionship only. Anything else that occurs is a matter of coincidence and choice between consenting adults."
The website is hosted in Spain and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Spanish courts.
Trading as Lazarus Trading SL the company moved to Spain from London in 2014 to take advantage of the country’s more liberal prostitution laws.
Owned and operated by an Irish couple, it was previously hosted in London to avoid prosecution under Irish prostitution laws.
The company operates a number of similar websites across Europe.
Additional reporting by Michael Staines
