The publishers of the Examiner and Evening Echo newspapers are to drop their advertisements for massage parlours and escort agencies following the start of a Garda investigation into the sex industry.
The advertisements have been run in the classified advertisement columns of the Cork-based morning and evening newspapers for the past 10 years without any complaint from gardai, according to Examiner Publications' head of marketing, Mr Nigel O'Mahony.
However, following the Garda Commissioner's comments on Tuesday, these advertisements will no longer be carried. "We would like to thank the Commissioner for clarifying what was a grey area of the law," Mr O'Mahony said.
It had been unclear if advertisements for health studios represented a breach of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994, which included a ban on publishers advertising brothels or the services of prostitutes, Mr O'Mahony said.
The remit which the Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, gave to the new investigation team made it clear that he believed publishers who carried health studio advertisements could be in breach of the 1994 Act.
"Our stance has always been that the ads were legal and we would run them because we are not the conscience of the country," Mr O'Mahony said. "Our position now is we have taken the decision not to carry them because we always work within the law."
The value of these advertisements to the newspaper group was negligible. "We used to run eight or 10 a day, compared to one million classifieds a year," he said.
In the light of the new Garda investigation, the company was not prepared to run the risk of continuing to carry these advertisements.
The advertisements had run under the "Personal" headings in the classified columns of the two newspapers, but three months ago they decided to be more open and carry them under the "Massage" heading, Mr O'Mahony said. The Examiner sells 60,600 copies daily, while the Evening Echo sells 27,900 copies.
The Garda investigation has been ordered by the Commissioner to investigate those who organise, control and profit from prostitution. Mr Byrne initiated the State-wide investigation in response to public outcry about the operation of "health studios".
Publishers who carried advertisements for brothels and prostitutes were to be targeted by the investigation a Garda spokesman said.