Irish authorities have indefinitely suspended the issue of work permits for lap-dancers following concerns of exploitation of migrant workers.
The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment is currently only issuing work permits to known genuine entertainment providers and refusing applications for entertainment permits from known lap-dancing clubs.
The suspension of work permits for lap-dancers within recent months follows concerns about the growth of the sector in Ireland. The Ruhama Women's Project, which works with prostitutes, has suggested that the clubs should be banned because of their "inevitable" links to prostitution.
A call for a ban on work permits for lap-dancers was also made at a migration conference in Dublin this week.
Dr Pauline Conroy, a social policy analyst who recently conducted research on migrant workers for the Equality Authority, said permits should be issued only for authentic cultural and artistic performances, not to promote the "sex industry".
A Department spokeswoman said once legal criteria for work permits were met, it was not its function to stop them on "moral" grounds.
The number of lap-dancing clubs in Ireland has mushroomed in the past five years, starting in Dublin and spreading to many provincial towns. Last December Dublin Circuit Civil Court overruled Garda objections to give a club in Temple Bar a public dancing licence.
Work permits are needed for workers from outside the European Economic Area, that is, the European Union member-states plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
The work-permit suspension still allows Irish businesses to hire EEA nationals as lap-dancers, as they do not require permits.