A number of young women have told Sky News of receiving “shocking” offers of accommodation in exchange for sex, with international students particularly affected.
As the only English-speaking country in the EU, Ireland is a perennially popular destination for English language students, thought to currently number around 40,000.
They arrive to a country beset by a years-long housing crisis and often respond to adverts in private Facebook groups.
Brazilian Ana Paul Viana came to Dublin in 2022 to study English and complete a master’s degree. Like many students, she scanned listings on Facebook to find accommodation.
Ana, who had worked as a journalist in Brazil, responded to an ad for a single bedroom in the city centre.
“When I asked him for a price he said it wouldn’t be necessary to pay if I slept in his bedroom a few times a week,” she says.
“I felt a bit shocked. I just forgot about it and tried to move forward because I really needed to find a place to live, which is wrong because I would have reported it somewhere.”
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The adverts almost never make any mention of sexual requests, but when young women respond, the intentions of the advertiser soon become clear.
This practice of asking for sex in lieu of rent has seen an “alarming surge”, according to the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).
The organisation recently carried out a survey which showed that one in 20 students had been propositioned in this way.
Laura Harmon, executive director of ICOS, said “urgent legislative action is needed” to address the issue.
Two bills designed to specifically outlaw it fell when the Dail (lower house of the Irish parliament) was dissolved ahead of an election last year.
The new minister for justice, Jim O’Callaghan, has said the government is “seeking to make offering sex for rent a specific criminal offence” and that work is ongoing between his department and the attorney general “on a suitable provision”.
Ana told Sky News the government “definitely” needs to legislate as soon as possible.
“Another problem is with women from Latin America or South America,” she says.
“People in general sexualise us as women. Some men take advantage because we are from Latin America, they think we are dying for any place, or we are poor or something like that.”
Darling Duran is from Bolivia and also came to Ireland to study English. She responded to an online ad for a one-bed apartment, available at €700 (£578) per month.
When the landlord replied, she says he told her “he was working at night so the bed is free, so I can stay in his room. He told me because he was working the bed is free, so I would stay in his bed, but sometimes he would be there”.
The advertiser, who Darling believed to be from a European country, told her that “he had no problem to share the bed with me because he is single”.
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After Darling refused, the man tried repeatedly to ask her on a date.
“I don’t think it’s funny,” Darling says. “In that moment I was very uncomfortable, and I was thinking that nobody deserves to go through this kind of situation.”
With average rents in Dublin around €2,500 (£2,064), up 4% on last year, and a shortage of rental properties, international students will continue to turn to social media to source accommodation.
Until specific legislation is introduced, it’s feared they will continue to encounter those who see sexual opportunity in the midst of Ireland’s chronic housing crisis.
