The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) is in immediate danger of closing due to lack of funding.
SWAI is running on fumes at the moment. Thanks to your support and the generous donors to our crowdfund, we have been able to continue operating until now. However, we have not confirmed any sustainable core funding for the future, so we will be operating pared-back services for the remainder of 2025. As it stands, we will then close at the end of the year.
We have and will continue to apply for funding, but we do not hold out hope that we will secure any. The funding landscape has always been bleak for sex worker-led organisations such as ours, and the current political climate has only exacerbated this.
Our radical work that critiques the government, the Gardaí, the Nordic Model, including client criminalisation and brothel keeping laws, makes us difficult to fund. We would not be giving voice to the needs and wants of sex workers in Ireland if we toned these statements down. We cannot ethically fulfil our role if we make ourselves more palatable to those in power.
There are costs associated with running a not-for-profit, even if we are not taking in money and we cannot guarantee that we can cover them in the future. We also need to offer clarity to our two part-time paid staff. We are not taking this decision lightly.
We will hold an online EGM on August 12th, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., to dissolve the company. Please email [email protected] for the link.
With the announcement of the closure of Ugly Mugs next month, it should greatly worry wider society that organisations that support the safety and wellbeing of marginalised communities cannot continue to operate in Ireland. We are a rich, diverse nation that prides itself on the progressive strides we have made in the past few years. The hypocrisy of the state and supporters of laws that put people in danger is sickening. These are shameful outcomes.
Thank you to all our supporters who have stood by us, helped uplift our voices and given us support throughout the years. You can continue to donate to our crowdfund here: https://28-days-for-swai.causevox.com/. This will help us with our continuing running costs and pay our staff for as long as possible.
And to the sex workers in Ireland, who remain some of the strongest and most inspiring people we know. Sex workers have always taken care of each other, because they often had no one else to rely on. We don’t doubt that that will remain true.
“The review of the law governing sex work in Ireland is not worth the paper it’s written on”, says Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland.
Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) 2017 was due to be reviewed in 2020 but due to myriad delays, it was not released until yesterday. Linda Kavanagh continued “From the start, this review has been conducted in the most unethical and frustrating way possible.
From the initial survey to this final report, the review has taken the stance that the law is in and of itself a positive thing. SWAI fundamentally disagrees with this position and is supported by extensive evidence that sex workers are harmed by these laws.
Minister O’Callaghan has admitted that demand for the purchase of sex hasn’t been reduced, so we ask, how can this report say that the law has made progress towards its objectives? Our concerns about the brothel-keeping laws, echoed by the sex workers who were spoken to, were dismissed because “the official statistics identify a shift away from the targeting of the seller to the purchaser”. Only 15 people have been prosecuted for purchasing sex! This also overlooks the fact that brothel-keeping raids and welfare checks to disrupt sex workers don’t end in convictions, but the consequences for sex workers are severe. Gardaí are still targeting sex workers in this way.
Where is the evidence that the law has reduced trafficking? Where is the proof that the law has removed barriers to sex workers accessing social infrastructure or paths to justice? Does it show that sex workers now increasingly report to the Gardaí when they want to report abuse? Does it show that violence against sex workers has decreased under the law? The answer to all of this is NO!
For seven years we have listed how the law has affected the safety of sex workers. Condoms are used as evidence that sex work has occurred, flying in the face of HIV prevention plans and highlighting the hypocrisy of the government. Sex workers are forced to work alone to work legally, which is not something any other worker is forced to do.
Government policy leads people into sex work and then it ensures sex workers are less safe. Instead of offering sex workers criminalisation of their income and non-existent resources like the “two dedicated phone lines for direct contact with An Garda Síochána on a 24-hour basis” sex workers should be listened to about the reality of living and working under the law. Where are the calls for resourcing sex workers to learn about their rights?
State bodies have taken a cowardly approach to sex work. Sex workers were written out of policies and strategy documents. Sex work is framed as gender-based violence instead of an economic activity, which ignores the autonomy of sex workers, removes their labour rights and neglects male workers altogether. Sex worker-led organisations are denied funding. This myopic approach creates a feedback loop that means that the state is praised for actions by organisations that do not engage with sex workers in meaningful ways.
The law has failed on its own terms, that much is clear. What isn’t clear is how the government and the Department of Justice can continue to ignore the health and safety of a population that it recognises as vulnerable.
We’re going to say it to you straight. We want to be transparent. SWAI is going to run out of money by April of this year.
Despite great efforts, SWAI has no secured or expected income to fund our core work due to being viewed as too radical for publicly critiquing the Nordic Model, government, and policing. We reject the conflation of sex work with human trafficking and gender-based violence by so-called feminist organisations and refuse to uphold these injustices against sex workers.
Funding for sex worker-led organising is incredibly hard to find and we experience a very hostile funding climate in Ireland due to sex work being criminalised and conflated with human trafficking, both in public opinion and in legislation implementing the Nordic model since 2017. There are very few organisations willing to fund our work. We need your support.
We have been fighting hard to raise the voice of sex workers, and recent work includes the first edition of our sex worker-created Zine, the establishment of the SWAI Allies Network, funding from ESWA to research the housing needs of sex workers, meeting with other sex worker organisations and a politician in Westminster, rollout of our hugely successful Sex Worker Awareness Training superseding our target, numerous media interviews and press releases, and an incredibly successful creative event in collaboration with A4 Sounds in Dublin in 2023.
It is vital that sex workers have a voice in Ireland. Recent research has shown how harshly sex workers feel stigma in Ireland. In recent years sex workers have been murdered, stalked, harassed and assaulted. SWAI is still the first point of call for sex workers who have been evicted, who have experienced violence at the hands of clients or the Gardaí, who have been turned away from sexual violence, domestic violence and mental health organisations and sex workers who need signposting to other services. Sex workers return to us again and again because we are judgement-free and meet them where they are at. Our focus in the past few years has been to work with well-funded organisations so that they provide stigma-free services.
We are worried that the review of the law regarding sex work will be pushed out until we run out of money, and we will be unable to coordinate a response. We are concerned that without support for SWAI, the voices of sex workers will disappear in Ireland. There will be no alternative voice in Ireland expressing the wants and needs of sex workers.
If you are interested in participating in our 28 Days for SWAI challenge please let us know and we can send you the information. Alternatively, you can donate to the crowdfund directly. We plan to launch some merch in the near future.
We rely on you, our supporters, to ensure our work continues. Can you help?
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (17th Dec) exposes how laws that claim to protect are, in reality, resulting in harassment, violence and even death. The structural violence and stigma that sex workers face in Ireland are a result of a whorephobic* state that ignores sex workers’ needs in favour of laws based on ideology rather than safety.
“The past 12 months have been oppressive for sex workers in Ireland,” says Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI). “In January we reported scam texts targetting migrant sex workers that escalated to extreme threats of violence and death. Later in the year, we described the stalking and harassment by self-appointed monitors of sex workers, who compiled dossiers of information about sex workers and sent it to media, Gardaí and local politicians. We welcomed the Gardaí’s statement that these actions were concerning and that they endangered sex workers.”
This year we learned that the Department of Justice is finalising the review into sex work laws in Ireland. This is deeply unethical and showcases the outgoing government’s contempt for sex workers. The review has been repeatedly delayed and the newest date that has been reported is early 2025. This process has been farcical.
One sex worker has said “We are everywhere including in your workspaces. We’re nurses, teachers, paramedics, and the parents at the school gate. Take off the Hollywood lens about what you think sex workers are.”
Kavanagh continued “We demand the new government, in whatever form it takes, recognises the violence it perpetrates against sex workers in Ireland. Whether it be through using condoms as evidence that sex work has occurred, the housing and cost of living crises that push people into sex work or the stigmatisation and silencing of a marginalised community, the state is a vector of violence. We need Ireland to get real about sex work.”
* Whorephobia is a term used to describe hate speech and overt discrimination against sex workers. It intersects with racism, xenophobia, classism, and transphobia, which often leads to structural discrimination, violence, and abuse. Whorephobia is deeply ingrained within societies…. – NSWP definition of whorephobia
The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) condemns the Minister for Justice’s continued delays in releasing the promised review of the Nordic Model of sex work laws. The long-awaited review was expected to come out in the next few weeks, as we learned from the media in September. However, it will now be published in early 2025. This delay conveniently extends beyond the tenure of the current government.
“How can we believe the Minister for Justice about anything when we are continually lied to about the date of this report?” says Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for SWAI. “We learned this news through the media, which has been a feature of this farcical process over the past 4 years.”
“This review will be 5 years delayed come 2025. The can has been kicked down the road because there is a lack of political support, unlike other laws that have experienced strong public backing, such as the abortion law. However, this does not mean that health, safety, bodily autonomy, and lives are not at risk, just as they are at risk without access to abortion. Will the new government formed after November 29th ignore marginalised communities as much as the current one has?”
“The Department of Justice assured The Journal that sex workers were engaged in this process. We await evidence of this claim because when we engaged with the former independent reviewer, who has since stepped back, we were informed that there was not enough time to consult more sex workers. That was in 2022.”
“International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is less than a month away. Tomorrow is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence starts next week. The Irish government’s inaction and contempt for sex workers’ lives is a disgrace—we will not stand by while their harmful laws continue to maim, silence, and kill.”
Day 6: Are you aware that the law is currently being reviewed? Do you support the Department of Justice finishing this internal review, jeopardising the whole exercise?
This review has been postponed until 2025 and is a significant failure of accountability and transparency. It will now be delivered 5 years late if this new date is to be believed.
Active sex workers are the most important voices needed in this review. It is of vital importance for sex workers’ voices in shaping policies that impact their lives.
Will you commit to listening to sex workers or will you ignore marginalised communities as much as the current government has?
Day 5: Will you listen to sex workers when they say they feel less safe under the law and have faced increased violence, threats, murder and stigma?
Where any aspect of sex work is criminalised, including client criminalisation it has adverse health outcomes for the workers.
Sex workers in Ireland face a rising tide of violence, evictions, and isolation due to the Nordic Model’s criminalisation of clients and punitive brothel-keeping laws. Will you listen to sex workers when they say they need decriminalisation?
Criminalisation isolates sex workers, limits access to peer support, and increases stigma. Sex workers continue to operate in a climate of fear, where they are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, precisely because of the law.
Day 3: Do you think the sex work laws in Ireland are successful?
Meanwhile, sex workers in Ireland have faced increased violence, threats, murder and stigma.
Any form of criminalisation of sex work harms sex workers. This focus on punishing clients has done nothing to improve the situation for sex workers and has actively made things worse. Our laws drive the industry further underground, making it more dangerous for sex workers.
The law has created a hostile environment where clients and sex workers themselves are deterred from reporting violence or exploitation for fear of prosecution, leaving sex workers more isolated and at risk.
Day 2: Are you aware that almost all of the people who have been prosecuted under our brothel-keeping laws are young, migrant women?
Most sex workers we speak to want to work with another worker. Working alone is enforcing the isolation that sex workers already feel. Shame and stigma mean that sex workers feel disenfranchised
Next Friday we will vote for the next government of Ireland. We are asking you, as sex workers and allies, to talk to the future leaders of the country about the rights of sex workers.
We’ve made it easy and put together this handy, printable PDF that you can stick on the back of your door to remind you.
We know many pressing issues in Ireland need change. Sex workers are affected by the lack of secure housing, rising rents, the cost of living crisis, lack of affordable childcare, an underfunded health system that doesn’t work for them and inadequate mental health services.
We’re trying to change the conversation around sex work in Ireland and we need your help!
“Who exactly are these laws for?” asked Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI). “The statistics confirm that the law is not reducing the demand for sex work. The number of summons increases year on year. Since its introduction, only a handful of clients have been prosecuted. This shows the law is not fit for purpose.”
“You only have to look at advertising sites to see the number of people in sex work has not fallen. Again we ask, who are these laws for?”
“While the delusional Act was supposed to allow sex workers to report violence without fear of prosecution, this so-called protection has not translated into meaningful support.”
“The statistics speak for themselves—this law is failing sex workers. The criminalisation of clients has made our community more vulnerable, more at risk, and less safe. We need to listen to sex workers and the realities they face. It’s time for the government to act, decriminalise sex work, and provide real protections for those in sex work.”
Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for SWAI said “Need we remind people that sex work is supposed to be decriminalised in Ireland? Surveillance of women going to a place of work by an anonymous group is harassment.”
She continues “The reports show no evidence that exploitation is occurring. Self-appointed monitors of migrant women are dangerous. Ask yourself, would you be comfortable with someone sending your image from social media and photos of where you work to strangers? This is stalking behaviour!”
“Brothel-keeping laws are written so broadly that these sex workers could be merely sharing a space to keep costs down and to ensure their safety. These actions can jeopardise real Gardaí investigations and open people up to blackmail. Nothing this group is doing addresses trafficking or exploitation.”
“This behaviour by a vigilante group is a continuation of the harassment sex workers have faced in Ireland in recent years.
Linda Kavanagh from SWAI said “The pending review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences Act) 2017 must call for the full decriminalisation of sex work and recognise the harms of the current law. Anything less will prove to us, once and for all, that this review process is a farce.”
Prof Armstrong’s new research highlights the mental health impacts that sex workers in Ireland face, compared to other jurisdictions. It echoes previous research that sex workers are not listened to and that client criminalisation exacerbates risks facing vulnerable sex workers..
The review of the law affecting the safety of sex workers in Ireland is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Throughout this review process, and despite multiple requests, there has been a lack of transparency and meaningful consultation with sex workers.
“This review must provide proof that sex workers were listened to about their health and safety under this law. There is a mountain of evidence from sex workers themselves that violence and fear have increased under the law, and trust in Gardaí has fallen. By forcing sex workers to work alone, the state is forcing them into harm’s way. Working safely and working legally are now incompatible, under the law” said Linda Kavanagh.
Molly from Street Workers Collective Ireland says “This report adds to the record of sex workers’ experiences that demonstrate that the 2017 law is harmful, and that the damaging impacts of it are felt more acutely by the sex workers who are struggling the most – precisely those this law maintains to want to protect. Many sex workers continue to face poverty, precarious migration status, housing insecurity and homelessness and are now left to work in even more dangerous and challenging circumstances than before. The law provides no remedy to the real issues sex workers face. It only increases the risks. If the review is an honest evaluation of the safety of sex workers in Ireland, then it should be recommending decriminalisation. The way in which it was conducted however means that we can have no confidence that the needs of sex workers will be taken into account – we weren’t consulted in the first place, and the corollaries of this are clearly visible in the current legislation.”
Lucy Smyth from Ugly Mugs said “The 2017 Act has broken the already damaged relationship between people in sex work and an Garda Síochána. I am deeply concerned at the shocking levels of abuse and violence I am now seeing directed at the sex work community on a daily basis and the lack of any appropriate response to this by the State. This Review must urgently address this issue but I am very worried that it will not.”
Gillian Wylie, Trinity College Dublin, and board member of the Irish Sex Work Research Network (ISWRN) stated “We welcome Prof Armstrong’s new report that reflects the findings of our member’s research. The ISWRN is a sex work research network whose board includes academics from major universities across Ireland. The ISWRN reached out to the Department of Justice to try to engage with this review process and is disappointed that the Department of Justice declined to do so. The ISWRN is disappointed the Department of Justice has so far failed to take on board the significant body of evidence based on our respective research and analysis of sex work and prostitution policy in Ireland over twenty years, spanning the period before and after legislative change in 2017.”
Stephen Bowen, Executive Director of Amnesty Ireland said “Amnesty’s research in Ireland too has found that effectively criminalising sex workers is causing them serious harm. This new piece of work is an important addition to the growing body of independent expert research on Ireland’s 2017 law, and where people engaging in sex work are included. There is no credible evidence or basis to suggest this law is in any way helping sex workers access justice, support, or exit routes should they want.”
“Regrettably, this review report is being drafted by the Department that created this law, so we fear it will recommend retention. Obviously, we hope our concerns will prove unfounded. We make a final appeal to the Minister for Justice to do the right thing, and recommend decriminalisation and provision of actual supports for sex workers. Otherwise, the report must be withdrawn and the review recommenced, not as some legal formality but because sex workers’ safety and lives are at stake.”
Mardi Kennedy, coordinator of the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) commented on the case today. “By noting that ladies who pursue this type of activity might be less tempted to bring it further, we feel the judge is acknowledging that the current sex work laws in Ireland have pushed sex workers away from paths to justice.”
She continues “Less than 1% of sex workers report crimes against them to the Gardaí, compared to 90% of the general population who have trust in Gardaí. We applaud these brave women who came forward to ensure that a predator known to the sex worker community has been jailed. But we must note that many sex working victims do not feel they can report to Gardaí.”
Linda Kavanagh, spokesperson for SWAI also said “The details of these abhorrent crimes show how the law has forced sex workers to deprioritise their own safety. In all of these cases, Aaron Barwell gave a false address which, as the judge notes, shows forward planning for his crimes.
Client criminalisation and laws that prevent sex workers from working together for safety or hiring a security guard, did absolutely nothing to stop this predator. This case highlights the urgent need for better protections and legal reforms to ensure the safety and rights of sex workers in Ireland and underscores the severe consequences of neglecting these needs and not listening to sex workers.
The current Nordic model of client criminalisation has proven detrimental to sex workers’ safety. Research and lived experiences have shown that these laws push the industry underground, increasing the risk of violence and exploitation.
Decriminalisation is the only viable solution to protect sex workers. This would reduce stigma, allow sex workers to work together for safety, perform their own risk assessments and facilitate better access to health and support services. The current government policies push people into sex work through economic hardship and then ensure they are not safe by criminalising their clients and working conditions.
Sex workers deserve better than laws that put them in harm’s way. They need to be heard and included in the policy-making process that affects their lives. We cannot trust the law review that is being unethically finalised by the Department of Justice.
We want to reach out to these sex workers and offer a listening ear and support.”
