Prostitution Prostitution laws in IrelandÉire
Ireland follows the Nordic model. Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 inserted section 7A into the 1993 Act, making it an offence to pay, offer or promise payment for sexual activity, and deleted the provision that had made a sex worker's own soliciting an offence. Brothel keeping, organising prostitution for gain and living on its earnings are offences under the 1993 Act, and section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 makes it an offence to publish or distribute an advertisement for prostitution or a brothel. The statutory review of section 7A, published in March 2025, found the offence hard to enforce and recorded few convictions.
Legal model
Buying criminalised (Nordic model). Buying sex is an offence; selling it is not (the "Nordic" or "Equality" model).
Since 27 March 2017 paying for sexual activity is a summary offence and the seller-side soliciting offence has been removed, so selling sex is not an offence. Brothel keeping, organising prostitution, living on its earnings and advertising prostitution remain criminal, which in practice also catches sex workers who work together from the same premises.[1][2]
At a glance
| Question | Status | In short |
|---|---|---|
| Selling sexual services | Legal | Selling sex is not an offence. In 2017 the paragraph of the 1993 Act that defined offering one's own services as soliciting was deleted, so the street-soliciting offence in section 7 no longer applies to the person selling.[1][2] |
| Buying sexual services | Illegal Criminal offence | Paying, giving, offering or promising money or any other consideration to engage in sexual activity with a person who sells sex is a summary offence: a class E fine for a first offence and a class D fine for any later offence. Paying for sex with a trafficked person is a separate, more serious offence.[1][2][3] |
| Brothels and managed venues | Illegal Criminal offence | Keeping, managing or assisting in managing a brothel is an offence, as is knowingly letting or permitting premises to be used as a brothel. Penalties reach 12 months' imprisonment on summary conviction or 5 years on indictment.[2] |
| Third parties profiting (procuring / pimping) | Illegal Criminal offence | Controlling or directing a person's prostitution for gain, organising the prostitution of more than one person, or compelling someone into prostitution carries up to 10 years on indictment. Knowingly living on the earnings of another person's prostitution while aiding and abetting it is a separate summary offence.[2] |
| Advertising sexual services | Illegal Criminal offence | Publishing, distributing or causing the publication of an advertisement for a brothel or for prostitution in the State is an offence, explicitly including advertising on a computer screen. Fines reach EUR 2,500 on summary conviction and EUR 25,000 on indictment.[4][5] |
The law in detail
Selling sexual services
Selling sex is not an offence. In 2017 the paragraph of the 1993 Act that defined offering one's own services as soliciting was deleted, so the street-soliciting offence in section 7 no longer applies to the person selling.[1][2]
Section 25(a) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 deleted section 1(2)(a) of the 1993 Act. Section 7 (soliciting or importuning in a street or public place) and the Garda direction power in section 8 still exist, but "solicits or importunes for the purposes of prostitution" is now defined only as soliciting someone to obtain their services or soliciting on another person's behalf. Sex workers who work together from the same premises can still face the brothel-keeping offence (see brothels).
Checked 30 October 2026
Buying sexual services
Paying, giving, offering or promising money or any other consideration to engage in sexual activity with a person who sells sex is a summary offence: a class E fine for a first offence and a class D fine for any later offence. Paying for sex with a trafficked person is a separate, more serious offence.[1][2][3]
Section 7A of the 1993 Act was inserted by section 25(b) of the 2017 Act and commenced on 27 March 2017 (S.I. No. 112 of 2017). Section 26 of the 2017 Act inserted section 5(2A) into the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008, covering payment for the prostitution of a trafficked person. The March 2025 review reported that An Garda Síochána and the DPP see significant barriers to enforcement, including the limited power of arrest for detention and questioning and the need for an admission or proof of payment. A class E fine is up to €500 and a class D fine up to €1,000 (s. 3 Fines Act 2010).
Checked 30 October 2026
Brothels and managed venues
Keeping, managing or assisting in managing a brothel is an offence, as is knowingly letting or permitting premises to be used as a brothel. Penalties reach 12 months' imprisonment on summary conviction or 5 years on indictment.[2]
Section 11 of the 1993 Act covers keepers and managers, tenants or occupiers who knowingly permit the use, and landlords who let premises knowing they will be used as a brothel. The Act does not define "brothel"; the term is taken from case law, under which premises used by more than one person for prostitution can qualify, so two sex workers sharing a flat are exposed to prosecution.
Confidence: medium. The statutory text was read on the revised Act. The case-law definition of a brothel was not checked against a judgment for this entry.
Checked 30 October 2026
Third parties profiting (procuring / pimping)
Controlling or directing a person's prostitution for gain, organising the prostitution of more than one person, or compelling someone into prostitution carries up to 10 years on indictment. Knowingly living on the earnings of another person's prostitution while aiding and abetting it is a separate summary offence.[2]
Checked 30 October 2026
Advertising sexual services
Publishing, distributing or causing the publication of an advertisement for a brothel or for prostitution in the State is an offence, explicitly including advertising on a computer screen. Fines reach EUR 2,500 on summary conviction and EUR 25,000 on indictment.[4][5]
Section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 also catches advertisements that, by their terms or circumstances, give rise to a reasonable inference that a service is prostitution. A business that publishes advertisements has a defence if it received the advertisement in the ordinary course of business and did not know and had no reason to suspect that it related to prostitution or a brothel, so a site that knowingly hosts such advertisements falls within the offence. Directors and managers of a body corporate can be personally liable.
In April 2026 a senator told the Seanad that a large escort website with more than 900 listings aimed at Ireland was operating from a company registered in Spain; no prosecution of the site was reported.
Note. We found no reported prosecution of an online advertising platform under section 23.
Checked 30 October 2026
Key legislation
| Law | What it does here | In force |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 (revised, updated to 22 December 2022) Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 s. 7 · s. 7A · s. 8 · s. 9 · s. 10 · s. 11 | Contains the purchase offence (s. 7A) and the offences of soliciting, organising prostitution, living on its earnings and brothel keeping.[2] | 7 July 1993 |
| Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 s. 25 · s. 26 · s. 27 | Part 4 introduced the purchase offences, removed the seller-side soliciting offence and required a report on section 7A within three years.[1] | 27 March 2017 |
| Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 (revised, updated to 31 December 2024) Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 s. 23 | Section 23 prohibits advertising brothels and prostitution in any medium, including online.[4] | 3 March 1994 |
Pending and under review
Under review · updated 25 March 2025
Review of the operation of section 7A (Part 4 of the 2017 Act)
The review required by section 27 of the 2017 Act was published on 25 March 2025, about two years late. It reported 161 prosecutions and 15 convictions for the purchase offence to mid-2024 and recommended limited arrest powers for detention and questioning, a fixed charge penalty notice for admitted purchases, awareness campaigns, better data collection and research funding. The Minister for Justice said law-enforcement recommendations would be considered with An Garda Síochána; no bill had been published by October 2026.[3][6][7]
In numbers
Figures from the March 2025 review as reported by the Law Society Gazette, covering 2017 to mid-2024 (July or August 2024 depending on the source). Convictions are from Garda PULSE records; the DPP has said it does not hold conviction data for this summary offence.
Timeline
- 7 July 1993Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 enacted, including offences of soliciting, organising prostitution and brothel keeping.[2]
- 3 March 1994Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 enacted; section 23 prohibits advertising brothels and prostitution.[4]
- 27 March 2017Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 commenced: paying for sex becomes an offence and the seller-side soliciting offence is removed.[1][2]
- 25 March 2025The Department of Justice published the statutory review of section 7A, which found the offence difficult to enforce.[3][6]
Sources
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. Office of the Attorney General (electronic Irish Statute Book). legislation · accessed 30 October 2026
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 (revised, updated to 22 December 2022). Law Reform Commission (Revised Acts). legislation · accessed 30 October 2026
- Sex purchase ban difficult to enforce and measure. Irish Legal News, 25 March 2025. news · accessed 30 October 2026
- Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 (revised, updated to 31 December 2024). Law Reform Commission (Revised Acts). legislation · accessed 30 October 2026
- Escort website 'makes a mockery' of Ireland's law criminalising purchase of sex. The Irish Times, 22 April 2026. news · accessed 30 October 2026
- Review of legislation that criminalised the purchase of sex completed. Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, 25 March 2025. government · accessed 30 October 2026
- Only 15 convictions for paying for sex – review. Law Society Gazette, 26 March 2025. news · accessed 30 October 2026