Would you date a stranger – who happened to be a much older man – in secret, if it meant you'd have an endless supply of disposable income, new clothes and all the cosmetics your heart desired?
While for some this might be an immediate no-no, for other women the prospect is quite appealing indeed. So much so, in fact, that the website SeekingArrangement.com has seen a 14% increase in both male and female Irish users since 2014.
Relationships initiated on the website generally involve exchanging money, travel and gifts for "companionship." In some instances sex comes as part of that package. The process is called “sugaring”.
The average Irish user of the service is a typical "Sugar Daddy", in his early forties, based in Dublin and earning in excess of €250,000.
As for the women, TV3's Ireland AM spoke to two of Ireland's 23,000 "Sugar Babies", both college-age women who have used the service as a way to make some extra cash and keep themselves in a glamourous lifestyle.
One such woman, Natasha, a 19-year-old with two part-time sugar daddies and one full-time one, explained the arrangement that she has going on.
"I see him twice a month," she said of one of the relationships.
"Once we either go for a drink or we have dinner, and the second date we have is a shopping date where I pick out what I like and he buys it for me… I get an allowance as well."
Siobhán [name changed], a 20-year-old Irish college student, said she had been treated to new Louboutin heels, clothes and make-up on her first date with a sugar daddy based in the UK.
"He’s giving me €500 a month," she said, adding that her sugar daddy has flown her to the UK ten times during the relationship.
"We go for dinner, go for drinks and then just spend the night together. If I’m looking for new clothes for college or a night out with the girls, or I need to go on holidays with the girls, he’ll give me that aswell."
As for sex, Siobhán said it is part of the arrangement and that it was discussed before the pair met in person.
"With him, we discussed it [sex] before I went over [to the UK], to see if we were interested in each other as I was going to stay the night with him in his house anyway.
"We had discussed it before I went over. Sex was fine. It was no problem."
Natasha adds that she enjoys the sugar baby lifestyle as it gives her an element of control in her life.
"It makes me feel glamorous, it makes me feel sexy, it makes me feel powerful and it makes me feel like I’m in charge of my life and makes me have that power.”
Watch the full interview, which aired on Ireland AM today, here:
