Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased the Minister of State is present to deal with this question, given his long-standing commitment to the issue of prostitution law reform. It was a pleasure to work with him on the justice committee on the important reform we introduced in 2017 to change our focus as regards prostitution and to criminalise or the purchaser. The question I am asking relates to the previous law. I am asking the Minister to provide statistics on the number of prosecutions and convictions for prostitution-related offences on an annualised basis from 2013 to 2016, inclusive.

I have a long-standing interest in this, both from an academic point of view and as a legislator, and we brought in an important and positive reform in 2017 but I am keen to complete the statistical picture of the way prostitution offences were prosecuted under the 1993 law, which the justice committee found to be flawed and in need of reform when we reported on this in 2013. The report, which paved the way for the 2017 Act, provided a snapshot of prostitution-related offences and of prosecutions and convictions for prostitution offences in 2012. In the previous year, the Department of Justice and Equality had produced a discussion document with a table of CSO-derived statistics on recorded prostitution offences from 2004 to 2011. I am asking the Minister of State to complete the picture by bringing us up to date with details of offences between 2013 and 2016. I have contacted the CSO and I am very grateful to it for its help. It took over the statistical recording of crime in 2005 and it is doing a very important and meticulous job, but it has only been able to send me statistics up to 2014.