42,000 Irish are cheating online

A MASSIVE 42,000 Irish men and women partake in extramarital affairs, it has been claimed.

Apparently the Irish are a bunch of cheaters thanks to a website that offers the chance to engage in relationships outside of marriage.

With 630,000 registered users from Ireland and the UK, IllicitEncounters.com helps people look for affairs online.

Scale

Defending the alternative 'match-making' service, Rosie Freeman-Jones revealed that she did not feel guilty about the site, which was founded in 2003.

Speaking on the John Murray Show, she admitted: "I don't think there is a great moral problem, we don't necessarily think an affair is a bad thing. I've been doing this job for four years and I sleep very well at night ... I am comfortable with it. People come to a site like ours simply because they want to feel they are not alone, if they are bored in their relationship. We recognise that this is happening and it is happening on a huge scale, our impact on marriages of the masses is very small.

"In a way it provides a bit of perspective. Once they have gone elsewhere they might think, no this is not what I want and that is a win, win for us."

Men are willing to fork out €100 per month to avail of the service, whether they're looking to flirt with a woman or engage in a full-blown affair.

Flirt

According to Ms Freeman-Jones, the majority of their users are aged between 35 and 40 and are financially stable.

"I think we have a tendency to demonise people who seek extramarital relationships and I think there is a fundamental problem with that.

"At the end of the day we are looking at between 40pc and 60pc of people who will cheat. You can either ignore it and say it is wrong and put it in a box somewhere or you can acknowledge it.

"Some people, maybe their confidence is low and they might come online just to flirt a bit.

"There are people who come looking for a specific type of relationship.

"I think there are quite a lot of things that motivate people and I don't think they are things you would expect.

"I don't think everybody using the site is missing something at home and that is something that is important to get across.

"These aren't people who are necessarily in an unhappy marriage but this a feeling among them that they get to a stage in their life where they feel as if they should be happy with their monogamous relationship and they are not and they feel confused and conflicted," she added.

labutler@herald.ie