Mr. Tiernan Brady:

I wish to address the question of having young people tested. As with trying to get people to engage with health services in general, in encouraging people to be tested we face significant barriers. The last 20 years have been phenomenal for lesbian and gay people in Ireland. There has been great change, given the fact that there was decriminalisation only 20 years ago. Despite the phenomenal change in legislation and society, however, for many people the individual experience is still not one of change. They face rejection and isolation which they fear. All of this creates pressure and prevents people from engaging with the services that we need to provide.

Another key barrier is that no one wants to have a sexual health test. No one skips to the doctor to have the test done. It is a question of how to use existing technologies, for example, rapid testing, to make the process convenient, swift, inclusive and non-judgmental. In London lunch-time clinics allow people to pop in during working hours in order that they do not need to tell anyone that they are taking the day or three hours off to be tested. In Copenhagen the testing centre is located inside a shop on the main shopping street and one need only pop in. We must move our testing centres to where people are in order that they can access them in a way that is convenient for them.