The study by the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) at UCD, commissioned by the Department of Justice, backs the continued enforcement of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.

The new report comes two months after a coalition of 80 academics called on the government to repeal the law, which they said is “actively creating a climate of risk and danger that harms sex workers’ safety”. Solicitor Maura Butler was appointed in July to lead a statutory review of the law, which is ongoing.

Dr Monica O’Connor, co-author of the new report alongside Ruth Breslin, said: “We can see the legal changes made just three-years ago beginning to have an impact. Our recommendations to policymakers are clear, build on this progress, continue to embrace an approach which targets those whose actions fuel these crimes and support the women involved to find ways out.”

However, Dublin solicitor Wendy Lyon, a prominent critic of the 2017 law, told Irish Legal News: “Notably absent from the report are any interviews with women in prostitution themselves. Instead, the study was conducted by interviewing gardaí and NGOs which have already declared their support for client criminalisation. The views of men who pay for sex are also reported from third party sources.

“This is a strange approach to take from a programme which describes itself as being committed to collaborative research. It is particularly concerning, given that a significant part of the report deals with sex workers’ experiences with the gardaí since the 2017 Act came into force. Their views cannot be reliably ascertained when they have been filtered through pro-criminalisation NGOs and the gardaí themselves.”