Ms Sarah Benson:

We are engaged in a number of initiatives supporting those in prostitution to report crimes. One concerns on-street prostitution whereby we collaborate with the two other health services on the street in conjunction with the main Garda stations. Harcourt Terrace has closed, so they are the Bridewell, Pearse Street and Donnybrook. We facilitate reports of crimes in respect of such offences. A number of years ago, we reviewed the possibility of expanding that to encompass the UK approach. At that time, we were told there were constitutional issues over carrying it through. In addition, it would be different from the legal situation in the UK as regards facilitating a witness ad litemmechanism for women.
As regards the indoor sex trade, we are currently developing a pilot initiative with the Dublin Metropolitan Garda Síochána, which we hope to roll out with the establishment of liaison gardaí for women in prostitution. This will be a proactive referral mechanism through welfare checks both to ourselves and the women's health service with which we collaborate on awareness of support services available, including free sexual health services. The objective is to build trust as opposed to going in on raid situations.
We also do training with the Garda Síochána in conjunction with front-line gardaí from the organised prostitution unit. That training stresses the objective of approaching with a degree of sensitivity and sensibility those who are in prostitution, as opposed to going in and simply arresting and charging them. That training programme has had the support of the Assistant Garda Commissioner for the last three years and is slowly reaching out. We hope to extend the training to senior gardaí.
Individual cases are still problematic because some women may not disclose incidents of violence due to their immigration status and other external factors, as well as fear, including a fear of not being believed. Therefore, one of our approaches, and that of the women's health service, is to support, encourage and empower women to report crimes. Some women have been extremely courageous in doing so and we support them through the court process. However, we consider there is still more to be done and so we are being proactive in that regard.