Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad to have the opportunity to raise the critical matter of the dramatic increase, the skyrocketing, in detections of HIV in Ireland. The Minister of State will be aware of the statistics. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has identified a 30% increase from 2014 to 2015. In the category of men who have sex with men, MSM, comprising predominantly gay and bisexual men, the increase in detections was even higher, at 34%. Our rate of HIV infection, at 10.6 per 100,000, is significantly above the EU average of 6.3 per 100,000. We must address the problem. It is as big a problem in terms of numbers contracting HIV, as existed at any time during the 1980s and 1990s.

We must take a wide variety of approaches to it. It is a complex issue that requires a huge variety of actions. However, I want to see if the Government can ensure that two simple, relatively immediate actions happen. First, could we push the implementation group for the sexual health action plan to prioritise a decision to make pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP, more widely available to high-risk groups? The drug Truvada has been approved in Ireland. International trials show it is extremely effective in cutting back the onset of symptoms of the virus. The number of people appearing in accident and emergency departments, particularly at weekends, is at crisis levels. Will the Minister, through the implementation group for the sexual health action plan, seek to have the drug made available for high-risk categories?

Second, there has been very welcome funding from the national lottery to the voluntary organisation KnowNow's nationwide rapid HIV testing programme. This needs to be preserved and the organisation needs to receive secure funding into the future. It must be supported, given that it is one of the best immediate responses. People who have HIV can find out very quickly. It is a very simple test that can be done outside of clinical settings. Half the men presenting to the programme to be tested have never been tested for HIV before. Across the country, the detection rate is five times higher than in a typical clinical setting and in Dublin city it is up to ten times higher.

The organisation is providing a vital service to allow men to find out whether they might be infected with HIV. If we can expand and strengthen it, provide the drugs I mentioned and do a range of other sexual health education programmes that, no doubt, need to take place at the same time, it would help stop the immediate emergency which we face. I would be keen to hear the Minister of State's view as to whether she would be able to provide those drugs to people in high-risk categories and whether she could provide secure funding for the KnowNow voluntary organisation.

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