---

Two new ‘sex for rent’ offences proposed

The Government has approved the drafting of legislation that will introduce two criminal offences linked ‘sex for rent’.

The Department of Justice says that the bill will address a range of “pressing challenges” in the justice system.

The General Scheme the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 will introduce two new offences to criminalise the practice of seeking sex in lieu of rent: offering accommodation in exchange for sex and the advertising of accommodation in exchange for sex.

The provisions encompass both rental agreements between landlords and tenants, and ‘rent-a-room’ situations.

‘Distress and re-victimisation’

The bill will also ensure that counselling records are released only where a court decides that they contain material relevant to legal proceedings.

Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that he was “fully aware” of the distress and re-victimisation that disclosure of counselling records could have on complainants in sexual-assault trials.

He said that a 2017 change in the law, which provided for the court to decide at a pre-trial disclosure hearing if counselling notes were materially relevant and should be released to the defence, had not operated as intended.

“I am, therefore, proposing to amend the existing legislation by requiring that a disclosure hearing takes place in all cases and removing the provision that allows for this step to be waived,” the minister stated.

Face covering

“Complainants have expressed how they have felt compelled to waive the disclosure hearing because they don’t want to risk a successful prosecution or delay a trial, therefore their records are routinely being released,” he added.

The bill will also provide the gardaí with the power to require a person to remove a face covering where they reasonably expect that it is being worn to intimidate or conceal a person’s identity when intending to commit a crime.

The draft bill will now be referred to the Oireachtas Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.