67. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health the reason the new national sexual health strategy has still not been published; her plans to address rising rates of sexually transmitted infections and increase capacity in sexual health services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10514/25]

Sentiment score: 0.11

There is currently no active sexual health strategy for Ireland. The previous strategy was launched a decade ago by Leo Varadkar when he was Minister for Health. We have long been promised a new strategy but it has not been delivered. For the third year we are lacking a comprehensive strategy or vision for sexual health. The sexual health services are thin on the ground and starved of resources. Will the Minister of State commit to prioritising sexual health? When will this long overdue strategy be published?

Sentiment score: 0.09

It is welcome to hear that this strategy is to be launched but this is not the first time it has been promised. As the Minister of State knows, there was a review in 2023. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, promised a strategy in 2024 and the then the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, followed up by promising a strategy in Q1 of 2025. I welcome that progress has been made but it is urgently needed. As the Minister of State said, sexual health infections have increased by 31% and the incidence of gonorrhoea rose by 60%. Last month the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that Ireland had the highest rates of gonorrhoea in Europe and among the highest rates of syphilis. At the same time services in the ground are really thin, particularly outside Dublin. Ten counties across the country have no STI clinics - ten counties with no services whatsoever. In the counties where there are services, some of them happen very rarely. In Kerry, for example, there is a clinic every fortnight. There are very poor services on the ground. The Minister of State mentioned the online services. We know from research that these are not available to many people who are excluded because of literacy, digital exclusion or language barriers. They are not the solution; we need real services on the ground for people.

Sentiment score: 0.01

In her opening response the Minister of State mentioned PrEP, which could be a game-changer for HIV. The same is true for PEP and rapid testing. It can take 18 months for someone to be seen in a PrEP clinic in this country. In Dublin, over 1,000 people are waiting for an appointment at one of the PrEP clinics. It took a year and a half to replace the nurse specialist in the South Infirmary in Cork. At the same time, the UK has same-day walk-in clinics and screenings. We can talk about increased funding but the services are not there, particularly on PrEP. We have seen that 39% of new HIV infections were late diagnosis. We now know that 50% of the transmissions are among heterosexuals. Both these findings result in poor outcomes and the likelihood of ongoing HIV transmission. With these kinds of results there is a serious risk that we will not reach that target of eliminating new HIV infections by 2030. Great work is being done by some of the NGOs and some of the people working in sexual health, but the services and funding are not there. We need the new strategy and we need to protect sexual health because it has been neglected for far too long.

Sentiment score: -0.01