THE typical profile of a child prostitute is one who is drifting and disconnected from school, home community. "Prostitution is one of the greatest risks to children out of home," says Paul Harrison, director of Childcare at the Eastern Health Board (EHB).

Sara Burke of Focus Point believes that any young person who is homeless for more than a few nights is vulnerable and Paul Flynn agrees. "If a kid is on the streets for anything longer than three or four days they will be touched by this," he says. "They may not be involved but they will know who is involved and they will definitely have been approached."

So the priority is getting these children off the streets quickly. "But we're coming in too late," says Burke. "For example, if a kid drops out of school at 11, 12 or 13, they're lost to the system. Nobody knows how they're doing until they turn back up a couple of years later by which time it's impossible to work with them."

To that end, the EHB says the intention is to focus more on preventative work. "This is not just about accommodation," says Paul Harrison. "We need to get in early to work with families." Many of the voluntary agencies, however, believe that EHB services are inadequate at both ends.

At the beginning of this year, the health board stopped using B&B accommodation for these children, as all were agreed it was appropriate. But they haven't adequately replaced it. "On any one night we could have 20 or 30 kids - seeking six emergency beds," says Sara Burke. "A lot of the kids have deteriorated hugely since this was brought in."

Sara Burke agrees that the problem is not just accommodation. "What we need is a child centred system. At the moment, if young people find themselves out of home outside office hours they have to go to the gardai to have a social worker assess them. But most of these kids have a bad relationship with the guards and won't go.

"We need a 24 hour service aimed at getting kids off the streets into emergency accommodation, then afterwards planned responses. The way the services operate at the moment practically forces young people to stay on the streets."

"We are the only European country that does not have units for child prostitutes," Paul Flynn points out. "You look at London, Glasgow, Holland, Belgium - right through. They provide services. We don't."