Ms Lucy Smith:

We keep details of all the services to which people might possibly go after they come to us as the victim of a crime.

We first attend to their immediate needs, for example, where they need first aid. After we have addressed immediate safety concerns, we record details of the incident in the system to make sex workers aware of what has occurred. We then inform the person about the support options that are available. These are not really supports because possible sources of support view all prostitution as inherent violence and, therefore, do not distinguish between what a sex worker considers a violent attack and what occurs in a normal day's work. To that extent, there are essentially no support services available. We do not advise people not to attend support services and details of services are available. In our experience, however, a very small minority of people engaged in indoor sex work use the support services provided by the Health Service Executive.