Dr. Brendan O'Shea:

Within Irish society there is almost certainly a high level of high-risk behaviour in the community at the moment. We are not really behaving in a rational, reasonable way. From a public health perspective, there are analogies with where we were with driving ten years ago, when there were in the order of 600 fatalities with a smaller number of cars on the road. By dint of rigorous work through the Road Safety Authority, good legislation and education that number has been halved and is dropping. However, we cannot say the same of how the members' electorate, our patients and society at large is behaving sexually. People are taking casual risks on a regular basis. We need to make it easier and more direct for them to be able to engage in more effective behaviour and avoid these risks. Cost is still a significant barrier. It makes good sense at a societal level to eliminate that, by whatever mechanism the members as legislators decide upon.