Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his remarks. The national AIDS strategy referred to by the Senator was published in 2000. Its most recent successor is the National Sexual Health Strategy 2015-2020, published in 2015. That strategy aims to improve the sexual health and well-being of the population and to reduce negative sexual health outcomes, including unplanned pregnancies and the transmission of STIs, including HIV. These aims are being addressed by the delivery of a programme of work to improve education and prevention supports, sexual health and STI services, and the quality of health information used to inform policy. The vision of the sexual health strategy is "that everyone in Ireland experiences positive sexual health and wellbeing". The strategy has three goals: that everyone living in Ireland will receive comprehensive and age-appropriate sexual health education and/or information and will have access to appropriate prevention and promotion services; that sexual health services, which are equitable, accessible and of high quality, will be available to everyone; and that robust and high-quality sexual health information will be generated to underpin policy, practice, service planning and strategic monitoring.

A mid-term review of the strategy in 2018 found that implementation is going well. There is a great working relationship between voluntary and community groups working in this area, and the HSE's sexual health and crisis pregnancy programme, SHCPP, which manages the health care services covered by the strategy.

Tackling the recent increase in new diagnoses of HIV and other STIs is a key element of the strategy. Last year saw the launch of a number of major actions to combat these rising rates of infection. In June 2019, Ireland formally became a member of the HIV Fast-Track Cities initiative, a major global partnership committed to accelerating local HIV-AIDS responses. Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway have joined this network, and €450,000 in funding was provided in 2019 for implementation of local actions, such as increased access to HIV testing. The most significant development in 2019 was the introduction of a national programme of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which involves the pre-emptive use of anti-retroviral medication to prevent HIV infection.

PrEP is provided within a holistic prevention service which includes regular monitoring and testing, as well as advice and counselling on safer sex practices. Funding of €5.4 million was provided in 2020 to provide for a full national roll-out of PrEP and to fund additional staff and other resources required to provide HIV PrEP within a broader sexual health and HIV prevention programme.

Other important actions undertaken by the SHCPP includes support for parents, with a range of booklets having been published recently to enable them to talk to their children about relationships, sexuality and growing up. The SHCPP also provided support for the provision of relationship and sexuality education in schools. The programme plays a vital role in developing research, collaborating with, for example, the ESRI, to produce the evidence-based information that is vital to understanding emerging trends. The future direction of the strategy will be reviewed in 2021.