Ms Patricia Stapleton:

I do not know whether it has driven it indoors. I know from speaking to gardaí regularly through our outreach work that it did have the effect of decreasing the on-street trade, because people have become more cautious. The women who work on the street also work off the street; they advertise both online. The chances are it already exists in both areas. What we see on the streets is only a small percentage of what is actually happening in the entire sex trade in Limerick. We do outreach only one or two nights per week and it has only a very small effect. We know the sex trade is booming every day of the week - daytime, lunchtime, all times. We believe that what we see on the street is only a small proportion of what is going on. I do not know if the operation has driven it indoors; I think it was already indoors.