Brothel in Munster, Ireland

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. Source: Prostitution Laws (prostitutionlaws.org), https://prostitutionlaws.org/countries/ireland/, reviewed 2026-11-03, CC BY 4.0.