A Waterford outreach team has informed the South Eastern Health Board that prostitutes as young as 12 and 13 are working in the city.
Members of the DORAS initiative outreach programme say they are in regular contact with three male and seven female prostitutes in the city, including one 12-year-old and another aged 13.
They also claim to have evidence that the extent of prostitution in the city is even greater than that suggested by a controversial study carried out two years ago.
Mr Niall McElwee, a course leader in social studies at Waterford Institute of Technology, was co-author of the study which claimed that 35 juveniles, 50 adult women and five men were involved in prostitution in the city.
Mr McElwee is chairman of the DORAS committee which was established a year ago and includes representatives of the Garda, the South Eastern Health Board, the Rape Crisis Centre and the Good Shepherd Sisters, as well as community activists.
However, although a Garda juvenile liaison officer is a member of the committee, gardai say they have no evidence that Waterford has a prostitution problem of the extent suggested.
The DORAS team leader, Ms Anne Tsang, said yesterday that the 12- and 13-year-olds who had come to their attention were involved in prostitution on a continuous basis. They had become involved in the activity because of "family circumstances".
Asked if the extent of juvenile prostitution was really as high as had been claimed, she said: "I can assure you it is. All you have to do is look around the city. I have been here for 16 years but after I got involved in DORAS I thought `My God, I must have been living in Disneyland' ".
Supt Michael McGarry said gardai had received no evidence to support claims that Waterford had a significant level of prostitution. The gardai would welcome the provision of any such evidence, which would be investigated.
The DORAS project will not survive without significant additional State support, Mr McElwee told a conference in Waterford last week.
"The pilot funds have run out, the outreach team has been working gratis since June, the offices can no longer be offered as the hosts need the space for another project and there is a general feeling of despair," he said.
While an EU grant of £1,000 and a further £1,500 from the women's health committee of the South Eastern Health Board had offered the project a lifeline, he said, he was critical of the board for not delivering on a commitment to provide more substantial funding. A health board spokeswoman said it was still awaiting a strategic plan from the project team outlining how they planned to spend any funds provided.