Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Nobody would argue that the Crisis Pregnancy Agency is not doing a very good job and therefore I will not comment further on this. However, I am concerned about the rather complacent approach the Minister of State has adopted to safe sex. One does not just get pregnant from sex, one can also get herpes, gonorrhoea, syphilis and hepatitis B, for example. More people are contracting STDs or STIs than ever before. The number has trebled since the late 1980s. Does the Minister not feel he should be ashamed that the budget for promoting safe sex among young people has decreased by 17%? What will he do about that? Young people have been targeted but people beyond child-bearing age also contract sexually transmitted diseases, yet there seems to be no effort to inform them about the risks in unprotected sex.

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