Ms Patricia Stapleton:

I do not know if prostitution can move any further underground. There is a certain amount of violence inherent in prostitution and the level in Sweden before the legislation came in was the same as it has been since. It cannot be eradicated. It is about harm reduction, rather than harm minimisation. One cannot ever get rid of the violence.

It is very unfair that one person can work alone, while two persons working together are seen as running a brothel. It is very problematic. We see in Limerick that people work in pairs and are safer when they do. For example, one could take a licence plate number if there was a problem. From what we can tell, however, brothels in Limerick are not run by independent sex workers but by gangs. For that reason, I do not know how to answer the Deputy's question.