Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and the work they are doing in this area. Many welcome changes have occurred over the past 15 or 20 years. The average age of HIV diagnosis fell from 37 years in 2005 to 31 in 2014. Has a generation missed getting the information, or have the witnesses carried out any studies to identify why this has arisen? If the average age is 31, there must be some who are much younger.

Could the witnesses give us more information?

Are the schools' sexual health programmes falling down in some areas? In some cases, is insufficient background information available to the people at the coalface who are providing the information? What would the witnesses do in order to give more detailed information that would assist those who are dealing with young people? It is extremely important, given that the figures for 2015 seemed to indicate that we are missing a generation regarding education. While the witnesses explained that there is better availability of diagnoses, one would imagine HIV should be decreasing rather than increasing. Can the witnesses explain it?