Coveney slams Govt’s lax attitude to lap-dancing clubs

21/03/2006 - 14:01:01
Fine Gael MEP Simon Coveney has criticised the Government for allowing the opening of lap-dancing clubs across the country.

Mr Coveney said today that such businesses were contributing to the trafficking of around 100,000 sex slaves into Europe every year.

"They are basically marketing women as a source of entertainment," he said. "The more lap-dancing clubs we have in Ireland, the more likely we are to be importing women from abroad to work there."

Mr Coveney was speaking ahead of the launch of a new Stop the Traffick campaign at the European Parliament in Brussels today.

The campaign aims to highlight the trafficking of women for use in the sex industry and to lobby for measures to tackle the situation.