Positioning sex workers as experts in their own lives is fundamentally implied in a ‘nothing about us without us’ model. As Adeline's words eloquently state, excluding sex workers from conversations about themselves is no longer justifiable. When we inhibit or limit access for sex workers to arenas where knowledge on sex work is produced and communicated, we are at once perpetuating the kind of stigma that has long disenfranchised sex working communities while also limiting opportunities for developing the depth of knowledge and experiential understanding that sex working communities hold.

This chapter draws on learning from a recent HIV Ireland– funded project carried out by researchers from the Irish Sex Work Research Network (ISWRN), in conjunction with the Sex Workers’ Alliance of Ireland (SWAI). The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived impact of legislative change governing sex work in the Republic of Ireland (the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 2017) on the health, well-being, and safety of sex workers in the jurisdiction. The new laws introduced the criminalization of sex purchase but not of the selling of sex. Sex workers who work together, however, would continue to be criminalized under the brothel-keeping provisions of the law. SWAI managed to include two amendments to the Bill, one of which is an assessment of the impact of the operation of the laws on the safety and well-being of sex workers.