Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank all the speakers. It is a first for me to hear people with such great passion and expertise here. There was much information and many figures, and it takes a while for me to get them into my head. All the figures are disturbing. I still find it very difficult to hear that men and women, young and old, straight and gay, do not understand the huge health risk there is around their sexual life. My immediate worry is about young people in school and college. We live in a society in which drink has topped every other drug for young people. There are huge complications with people drinking at even younger ages.

When my children went to school they went through all the educational steps mentioned earlier about being safe and seen. The problem lies in school. I frequently speak to young people in transition year in local schools about their drinking activities. The proper solution is not to ask the teacher who teaches other subjects in a class to talk to young people about drink, drugs and sex. Young people do not want to talk to a teacher they might have in an hour's time for maths. It needs a separate approach, particularly regarding sexually transmitted diseases, of which there has been a major increase.

I live in an area with the highest population in Ireland of young lone parents and people having sex at a younger age. This is all scientifically measured. Unless we come to grips with this in the classroom, whatever chance we have of getting these people into their 30s without having one of these sexually transmitted diseases is diminishing. I would like to see something done in the classroom, not with the teacher but with somebody who comes in on a regular basis to deal with young people and allow them to ask the questions they might not want to ask Mrs. Brown who teaches them home economics in an hour's time.

Deputy Ó Caoláin asked why people have to wait so long to be diagnosed with infections. It is a crucial time for them and they should not be left waiting. Are there plans for a national screening programme in this country, as in England? Dr. Holohan said there were services including STI screening, diagnosing and treatment. Where are they? Can we have a list of where they are? I would like them to be more frequent, particularly for people in schools. Are there plans through the Department or the HSE for a national campaign, similar to the road traffic campaign, on television or radio to identify with young people? There are plenty of radio stations out there and young people listen to them every minute of the day. It is time we started spreading the word to them through those stations.