Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is welcome to hear that this strategy is to be launched but this is not the first time it has been promised. As the Minister of State knows, there was a review in 2023. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, promised a strategy in 2024 and the then the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, followed up by promising a strategy in Q1 of 2025. I welcome that progress has been made but it is urgently needed.

As the Minister of State said, sexual health infections have increased by 31% and the incidence of gonorrhoea rose by 60%. Last month the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that Ireland had the highest rates of gonorrhoea in Europe and among the highest rates of syphilis. At the same time services in the ground are really thin, particularly outside Dublin. Ten counties across the country have no STI clinics - ten counties with no services whatsoever. In the counties where there are services, some of them happen very rarely. In Kerry, for example, there is a clinic every fortnight. There are very poor services on the ground.

The Minister of State mentioned the online services. We know from research that these are not available to many people who are excluded because of literacy, digital exclusion or language barriers. They are not the solution; we need real services on the ground for people.

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