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The sex industry in Ireland is worth €250 million a year, but legislation making it illegal for men to pay for prostitutes could help protect women, writes Aoife Kavanagh.

'The best way to describe our current situation is that prostitution is a little bit illegal'.

How would you react if your best friend told you they had paid for sex? Or your partner? Would it depend on the circumstances? Could you understand it if they were too young or too drunk to have known any better? Can you imagine how the conversation would go? Would it change the way you felt about them?

While I've never had that conversation, like most people, I do know somebody who has ...