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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 2 Apr 1996

Vol. 463 No. 6

Written Answers. - Criminal Prosecutions.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

227 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice the number of prosecutions that have been made under the kerb crawling provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993. [7091/96]

There is no specific offence of ‘kerb crawling'. Under section 8 (1) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993, a member of the Garda Síochána who has reasonable cause to suspect that a person is loitering — including loitering in a motor vehicle — in a street or public place in order to solicit or importune another person or other persons for the purposes of prostitution may direct that person to leave immediately that street or public place. A person who without reasonable cause fails to comply shall be guilty of an offence under section 8 (2) of the Act.

Since the Act came into operation in 1993, there have been a total of 118 prosecutions — as of 31 December 1995 — under section 8 of the Act. It would not be possible to establish, without the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of Garda time and resources, how many of these prosecutions, if any, related to loitering in a motor vehicle.

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