Dublin film festival to air movie starring Love/Hate actor depicting sex-for-rent story
The film was produced following an investigation into sex for rent in Ireland in December 2021.
A new film depicting the story of a woman offered a sex-for-rent arrangement is being aired at the Dublin International Film Festival next week.
by Tara O’Callaghan features star Peter Coonan as a prospective landlord who, along with his onscreen wife, offers a sex-for-rent arrangement to a foreign woman.
The film was produced following an investigation into sex for rent in Ireland in December 2021.
Ahead of the film’s premiere on February 21, Tara O’Callaghan said she was drawn to the subject matter “because it looks at a side of the housing crisis that rarely gets talked about, where survival and exploitation start to blur”.
It comes as Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan stressed the government’s commitment to legislating against sex for rent, included in the programme for government.
However, Mr O’Callaghan said in a reply to a parliamentary question by Labour leader Ivana Bacik that provisions already exist in legislation “for the offence of coercion, to compel a person to commit an act through violence or intimidation”.
He added that “the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023 extended the scope of the existing harassment offence under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 to cover persistent conduct that causes alarm, distress or harm”.
Department of Justice officials are continuing to liaise with the Office of the Attorney General on the matter, three years since the Government pledged to tackle it as a priority.
