Analysis: It's lucrative, but there is unease about the lap-dancing industry, writes Nuala Haughey.
It is under a year since the authorities stopped issuing work permits for lap-dancers, which had somewhat euphemistically fallen into the "entertainment" category.
Lap-dancers, who are usually topless, perform erotic dances in front of paying customers, who are generally not allowed to touch the women.
It is a lucrative business, as the mushrooming of such venues throughout the State in the past few years would indicate. For the women, many of them immigrants, it is a well-paid job and can be cash-in-hand.
But while club-owners insist that prostitution is not allowed on their premises and "no touching" policies operate, the business has been plagued with reports that punters in some venues pay the women for sex.
Just over a month ago, the Barclay Club in Dublin's South William Street was effectively closed by a court after it was found to have permitted illegal sexual acts in its luxury penthouse suite.
The Circuit Civil Court threw out an appeal by the club's owners against a District Court judge's refusal to grant it a music and dance licence. Gardaí who visited the club had found three men being entertained by two scantily clad women in the private suite.
On a separate couch, officers saw a naked woman lying over a man who was touching her breasts, buttocks and pubic area.
When the gardaí asked what was going on, the manager said: "That was lap-dancing." He denied he was running a brothel.
The Ruhama Women's Project, a group which works with prostitutes, called last year for such clubs to be banned because of their "inevitable" links to prostitution. Ms Maura Connolly from Ruhama said yesterday she was pleased with the Garda action against lap-dancing clubs and called for the Government to consider closing down all such premises. She estimated there were currently about 26 in the country.
"We know that women are often groomed for prostitution and in every other country in the world they are just a cover for prostitution. We have concerns about how women are being commodified; men can grope and leer at them and their bodies are for sale."
While Ruhama had encountered no "hard evidence" of prostitution in lap-dancing clubs in Ireland, there were "very strong indicators" that this was happening, including media reports.
"If it happens everywhere else in Europe, then why would Ireland be different?"
As for the argument that the refusal of the authorities to issue work permits for immigrant dancers might actually encourage illegal employment, Ms Connolly said this was a "very simple interpretation".
"Prostitution is just one part of it so if they are being trafficked to work in brothels here, it leads us to suspect that they are being trafficked for lap-dancing clubs as well." Senior immigration gardaí yesterday confirmed that part of their inquiries following Thursday night's raids would be into this issue.
Women are being moved around the State by their employers, particularly between clubs in Dublin, Dundalk and Limerick, said one source.
The last such high-profile State-wide searches for illegal immigrants was Operation Hyphen which led to the detention of 140 people, but few deportations.
Gardaí visited 294 premises in the operation last July, the first of its kind, which was criticised by immigrant support groups and Opposition politicians as being costly and counter-productive.
This time there has been little criticism of Operation Quest, which perhaps indicates a general public unease about the lap-dancing industry. Another difference is that gardaí are "armed" with a new law which makes it an offence for employers to hire undocumented migrant workers.
In a bizarre anomaly, it had not until this year been an offence for an employer to hire an illegal immigrant, although it was an offence for an undocumented migrant to work.
While gardaí came across Latvians, Lithuanians, Czech nationals and English women on Thursday night, there were few Irish women arrested.
"One of the questions we constantly ask is, why aren't they Irish girls?" Ms Connolly said. "The answer is that it's not acceptable. Irish men wouldn't want their daughter, sisters or nieces working in them, so why is it ok to use immigrants?"