As the Deputy may be aware, prostitution is not in itself a crime. Section 7 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 creates a summary offence of soliciting or importuning for the purposes of prostitution. Subsequent sections of the Act 8, 9, 10, and 11 deal with other offences in relation to prostitution.
I have made inquiries with the Garda authorities regarding the number of offences where proceedings commenced and the number of persons convicted in the Dublin area for years 2002 and 2003 for breaches of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993. The information provided by the Garda authorities is outlined in the following table.
It should be noted that these statistics relate to two Garda divisions in the Dublin metropolitan region only as no offences were recorded in the other Dublin divisions. Statistics for year 2001 were not recorded on the PULSE system and it is therefore not possible to provide a breakdown on a divisional basis for 2001.