Kate McGrew. Photo: Arthur Carron Before Covid, there were about 800 people in the industry advertising online. This dropped to 255 in the first few month of the pandemic. Now it s back up to 600 adverts online, Detective Superintendent Derek Maguire, head of the new Organised Prostitution Investigation Unit (OPIU) within the Garda National Bureau of Protective Services (GNPSB), tells the Sunday Independent. At the start of Covid, there was a huge drop. Then it began to pick up again in the summer. Now it is really coming back, despite Level 5 restrictions. People working in prostitution were without a living for a long time.