Solicitor Maura Butler SC was initially appointed in July 2020 to lead an independent review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, as required within three years of it coming into effect.

The law makes it a criminal offence to buy sex, but not to sell sex — but critics say the criminalisation of one party to a transaction has an unavoidable knock-on effect to the other.

Ms Butler was ultimately unable to complete the review and the Department of Justice announced in February that it would seek to complete the work by itself, without appointing a new independent reviewer.

The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) has criticised the decision as well as an alleged failure to include active sex workers in the review process, which it says raises “serious questions about the government’s commitment to understanding the impact of these laws”.

Co-ordinator Mardi Kennedy said: “In areas where reform is needed, the government has a strong track record of bringing in independent experts, and these experts have produced groundbreaking and change-making reports.

“As a matter of principle and in the pursuit of good governance, we demand that the Department of Justice reverse its decision to finalise the sex work law review in-house. It sets an alarming precedent that will have disturbing effects for many other marginalised groups.”

The group’s intervention came on the first anniversary of the murder of Limerick sex worker Geila Ibram.

Spokesperson Linda Kavanagh said: “The government’s refusal to listen to sex workers and its prioritisation of ideology over evidence and research is both unfathomable and dangerous.

“Geila Ibram’s murder should have been a wake-up call, but instead, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. How many more sex workers must suffer or die before the government takes meaningful action and decriminalises sex work?”