NATIONAL Museum officials have expressed concern to gardai about prostitutes operating in Benburb Street, Dublin, outside the Collins Barracks Museum, which is to be opened to the public in the autumn.
Female staff working on the museum project in the north quays area of the city have been propositioned by men in cars. Discussions have taken place between museum officials and gardai about the problem.
The prostitutes and their clients are now being discouraged by gardai from frequenting Benburb Street, and it is hoped that the ongoing revitalisation of the area will ensure the problem is eradicated before the museum opens.
A source close to the project said: "Women going into the complex during the day-time have been propositioned by guys in cars. People in the museum are clearly aware of the need to do something about the problem and discussions have taken place with the gardai."
Up to 100 women are working as prostitutes at Benburb Street and the majority are young girls with drug addictions, according to a Garda source. Some of the women begin appearing in the street at 11 a.m. and many take their clients to local apartments and the Phoenix Park.
Detectives interviewed a number of prostitutes in this area following the murder of Mr Michael Brady, who was shot in the head as he drove into a car-park beneath an apartment block on Arran Quay last year.
The women's clients are now the subject of closer scrutiny by uniformed and plainclothes gardai patrolling Benburb Street, and prosecutions are now being pursued against them under the Sexual Offences Act 1990, said the source.
For much of the past century, the National Museum has been unable to exhibit more than a portion of the collections of the Royal Dublin Society, Royal Irish Academy and other institutions.
In 1993 the Office of Public Works conducted a feasibility study, at the request of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, of whether Collins Barracks could be incorporated as part of the National Museum. The following year the Government agreed to make £10 million available to fund the conversion of the barracks for museum use and the area known as Clarke Square was vacated by the Army.
An exhibition is due to open later this year in the newly converted wings on the east and south-ranges of Clarke Square which will explore the evolution of the National Museum of Ireland and its collections. Temporary and visiting exhibitions are also planned for this year in the west range.