Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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67. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the new national sexual health strategy has still not been published; her plans to address rising rates of sexually transmitted infections and increase capacity in sexual health services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10514/25]

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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There is currently no active sexual health strategy for Ireland. The previous strategy was launched a decade ago by Leo Varadkar when he was Minister for Health. We have long been promised a new strategy but it has not been delivered. For the third year we are lacking a comprehensive strategy or vision for sexual health. The sexual health services are thin on the ground and starved of resources. Will the Minister of State commit to prioritising sexual health? When will this long overdue strategy be published?

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Sexual health is a priority for this Government. Following expert advice, the second national sexual health strategy underwent an additional round of stakeholder consultation and feedback, which is now complete. The good news is that the strategy was approved to progress to design stage at the end of last week. Once design is completed, the strategy will be submitted for ministerial and Government approval, then launched. It will be launched quite soon. The strategy will be supported by an action plan that will map out implementation in more detail for the first three years of its term.

HIV and STI rates have been rising both nationally and internationally. Consequently, we allocated funding of €550,000 for 2025 to support the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis scheme, bringing the total allocation for HIV PrEP to €6.45 million. This funding includes €200,000 for additional PrEP drugs and €350,000 for additional staffing in public STI clinics providing PrEP from July 2025. These measures will increase capacity for in-person PrEP appointments. Furthermore, an additional €600,000 has been allocated to support the free STI home-testing scheme, bringing funding for STI home-testing to €4.82 million in 2025.

A lot of work has been done on this and I assure the Deputy that this will be done as soon as possible when we get the go-ahead.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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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.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The rates of gonorrhoea and chlamydia had reduced slightly by the end of 2024 in comparison with the last two years. Better access to testing may be reducing onward infections. The national sexual health strategy supports positive sexual health information. It will have education, research, prevention and information, particularly on stigma. All this will be in the strategy.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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In her opening response the Minister of State mentioned PrEP, which could be a game-changer for HIV. The same is true for PEP and rapid testing. It can take 18 months for someone to be seen in a PrEP clinic in this country. In Dublin, over 1,000 people are waiting for an appointment at one of the PrEP clinics. It took a year and a half to replace the nurse specialist in the South Infirmary in Cork. At the same time, the UK has same-day walk-in clinics and screenings. We can talk about increased funding but the services are not there, particularly on PrEP. We have seen that 39% of new HIV infections were late diagnosis. We now know that 50% of the transmissions are among heterosexuals. Both these findings result in poor outcomes and the likelihood of ongoing HIV transmission. With these kinds of results there is a serious risk that we will not reach that target of eliminating new HIV infections by 2030.

Great work is being done by some of the NGOs and some of the people working in sexual health, but the services and funding are not there. We need the new strategy and we need to protect sexual health because it has been neglected for far too long.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The funding includes €200,000 for additional PrEP drugs and €350,000 for additional staffing in public STI clinics providing PrEP from July 2025. I understand the Deputy's concerns. As I said, this strategy is urgent for us. I assure him that hopefully in the next few weeks or maybe two or three months, I will definitely come back to him with this strategy. As he said, education and information are really important. Stigma is a big issue that we need to address. I will be delighted to work with the Deputy and do whatever I can to help and support him.