59 people have faced prosecution for paying for sex since it became illegal nearly four years ago.
According to freedom of information files, the offences allegedly took place in eight different counties.
Since April 2017, it has been illegal to buy sexual services from a prostitute.
New figures, released by the DPP, reveal 59 people have faced prosecution for the offence.
There were none in 2017, seven in 2018, 29 in 2019 and 23 last year.
63% of the people are in Dublin.
There have also been cases in Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Louth, Meath, Wexford and Donegal.
Unintended Consquences
Kate McGrew from the Sex Workers Alliance says the law has had unintended consequences noting “We are not surprised that it has resulted in policing of sex workers ourselves, what we’ve seen overwhelmingly is dispersal of our workspaces, people have been made homeless, people have been deported”.
She adds “This is a regressive law, if we are concerned about people in the sex industry we need to recognise that arresting our clients, pushes us deeper into poverty and deeper into desperation, criminalising our income it gives us fewer options and it makes us rely on the black market”.
Senator Barry Ward is a criminal barrister and Fine Gael senator and is calling for more prosecutions, saying “It’s not a case that there have only been 59 offences of that type, we know this activity’s going on so I’d certainly like to see the number of people being brought to account for it to be higher and what’s important is we make sure Gardaí are properly resourced and encouraged to bring prosecutions”.
Of the 23 people who faced prosecution last year, 15 were in Dublin.
