Ms Deirdre Seery:

Yes, it is. We advertise on Grindr. It is very expensive to advertise on Grindr but they gave us a discount. We took a risk and tried it out and it is very effective. For European Testing Week, running from 21 to 28 November 2014 we advertised on Grindr. As a result of European Testing Week, we as well as GOSH in Limerick will have people coming in for testing all week.

Advertising on the sites that gay men use works. Next year they might be using different sites, so we have to have a feedback loop from all the different types of sexually active gay men. We could be advertising on Grindr next year but everybody could have moved to a different site in the same way that many people do not get their information from Facebook now. One has to keep up with the trends and one does that from the feedback loops with people who are engaged with all the different sectors of the community.

That is what is exciting about our work. People in hospitals do not do that kind of work normally. We, the NGOs, can do it and we have the energy and the connections to do it. That is why it is a really good partnership between the State and the NGO sectors in terms of HIV prevention.