Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

In response to the specific issues regarding unplanned pregnancy, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency was established by statutory instrument in 2001 and is funded by the Department. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency is a planning and co-ordinating body established to formulate and implement a strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy in Ireland. A core aim of the agency is to achieve reduction in the number of crisis pregnancies by the provision of education, advice and contraceptive services.

The first strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy was officially launched in November 2003 and provides a framework for understanding the causes and consequences of crisis pregnancy and presents a clear set of actions to address the complex and interacting factors that contribute to the experience of a crisis pregnancy. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency works on an ongoing basis with statutory and non-statutory agencies to ensure successful implementation of the strategy. Since its establishment, the agency has received a total of €26.996 million in funding.

To promote contraception and safe sex, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency funds the Think Contraception campaign. This campaign is aimed primarily at people between 18 and 30 and also promotes abstinence as an option in sexual health as well as all forms of contraception for those who are sexually active but do not wish to become pregnant. The Think Contraception campaign is the result of many months planning which involved the development of an evidence base to inform the campaign, a consultation process with relevant stakeholders and focus testing among the target group. The campaign aims to prevent unplanned pregnancy by reminding sexually active young adults to use contraception consistently. While primarily a television advertising campaign, support literature and a website have also been developed to further support the key messages. The leaflet has been widely circulated to all GPs, pharmacies and family planning clinics. These are locations where young adults can receive expert advice and information.

The Crisis Pregnancy Agency develops and runs additional promotional campaigns on pregnancy prevention on an ongoing basis to directly engage with sexually active young adults. The aim of these targeted campaigns is to heighten awareness among young adults of the probability of sexual risk-taking with alcohol consumption, specially while one is on holiday, away from home and in places of entertainment. It also aims to renew their knowledge on benefits of condom use and contraception awareness. The 2005 promotional campaign will begin in June of this year.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In 2005, the funding allocated to the Crisis Pregnancy Agency's programme of prevention will be €825,000. In addition to the agency's direct promotional work, its funding programme is the largest single component of the annual budget. The programme funded 78 projects in 2004 and there is a no-policy-change commitment to disburse more than €3 million of funds in 2005. Within the overall programme of funding, a wide range of projects with a focus on crisis pregnancy prevention has been supported to the value of €736,000 nationally.

The Department also recognises its key role in supporting policy development and cross-Government working to address the issue of young people's health generally and in particular regarding promoting safer sex. In this regard, the Department works closely with the Department of Education and Science and other agencies and bodies to support young people in developing the appropriate knowledge, attitudes and personal skills to enable healthy relationships and sexuality.

In the school setting, the Department is working in partnership with the Department of Education and Science and the Health Service Executive to support schools in the introduction and delivery of social, personal and health education at both primary and post-primary levels. Relationships and sexuality education is an integral part of this curriculum and remains a key priority for this work with schools. Since the establishment of the support service in 2000, the Department has directly provided funding of more than €150,000 per annum to the service and this has been matched by substantial funding from the other partners.

In the out-of-school setting, the health promotion unit of the Department works in partnership with the youth affairs section of the Department of Education and Science and the National Youth Council of Ireland to implement the national youth health programme. The aim of the programme is to provide a broad-based, flexible health promotion and education support and training service to youth organisations and to all those working with young people in the non-formal education sector. Within the context of this programme, a training initiative entitled "Sense and Sexuality" is offered to youth workers. It addresses the issues of relationships, sexuality and sexual health with young people. In 2005 the programme will receive a funding allocation of more than €80,000.

The health promotion unit also runs a national public awareness advertising campaign to promote sexual health. The campaign is aimed at men and women in the age group 15 to 35 to increase awareness of safe sex and sexually transmitted infections. The overall goal is to increase safe sex practices, reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted infections transmission and unwanted pregnancies among young people. The campaign runs in third level colleges, places of entertainment, including pubs, clubs and discos, and youth venues and some health centres. This national programme has been running for several years and the health promotion unit is currently implementing a new and revised campaign, which has greatly increased the number of venues targeted. Since 2002 an information leaflet has been distributed as part of the campaign and currently the campaign is placed in 1,490 display points in 240 venues nationally. In 2005 almost €200,000 will be allocated for the development, expansion and continuation of this programme. The health promotion unit also produces a range of awareness raising leaflets on sexually transmitted infections and safe sex practices.

In all of the work carried out by the Department and the agencies it funds, the important role of parents in the development of healthy relationships and sexuality for young people is acknowledged and supported. To this end a key aspect of the strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy is to support parents in their role as the primary educators of their children on issues such as sexuality and relationships. In response to requests from parents and parent groups for help on how to begin talking to children about such a sensitive topic, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency developed a new resource called "You Can Talk To Me". This DVD and booklet aims to assist parents in communicating with their children — adolescents in junior cycle — about sexual health and relationships.

The rate of teenage fertility in Ireland has been relatively stable over the past 30 years. The number of teenage pregnancies per 1,000 females aged between 15 and 19 has ranged from 17.04 in 1970 to 25.66 in 2001. The teenage pregnancy rate shows a similar pattern to fertility rates since the 1980s. While the figure has been increasing since 1996, the current level is now the same as the 1980 level.

My Department's response to the issue of crisis and teenage pregnancy has been to work with all relevant stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and co-ordinated response and strategy. Total funding for the wide range of activity currently under way reflects a considerable increase in the allocation in recent years.

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