Justice Minister Helen McEntee yesterday announced that those convicted of offences abolished under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 would benefit from new legislation expunging their convictions.

Gardaí have identified a total of 607 convictions to be expunged, comprising 402 convictions recorded for soliciting or importuning for the purposes of prostitution and 205 convictions for loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

Ms McEntee said: “Given what we know about the levels of exploitation and human trafficking in the sex trade, it is very likely that many of those convicted in the past fall into the exploited category for a number of reasons, including because they were victims of trafficking.

“These vulnerable victims should also benefit from the legislative change regarding the sale of sex and be able to move forward and rebuild their lives.”

The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) has welcomed the move while stressing that the 2017 Act fell short of its promises to fully decriminalise sex workers.

Spokesperson Kate McGrew told Irish Legal News: “We very much welcome the news of the minister’s initiative to expunge these convictions. For sex workers who want to move on, these kind of convictions create a very real obstacle for them to be able to do so.”

However, she said sex workers were often convicted under so-called brothel-keeping offences and urged the minister to deal with these convictions as well.

The 2017 Act increased penalties for brothel-keeping despite warnings that the law is often used against individual sex workers sharing premises for safety.

Ms McGrew urged the government to “give sex workers the ability to work above board and to have no repercussions, as we currently do, to reporting any kind of crime or abuse that we see or may suffer”.