Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome our friends from the United States. They are very welcome.

Tomorrow marks Irish AIDS Day created to raise awareness of HIV and the resulting AIDS epidemic. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 70 million people have acquired the infection and about 35 million people have died. Today around 37 million worldwide live with HIV, of whom 22 million people are on treatment. It is 40 years since the first reports of HIV and AIDS in Ireland in 1982 and much has changed since then. People are now living with HIV and cannot pass the virus on to their sexual partners.

I am mindful since I last spoke in this Chamber about HIV that the Channel 4 series "It's a Sin" has put a spotlight on the pandemic in the early 1980s and 1990s and it got everyone talking about it. Crucially, it was an opportunity for professionals in sexual health and well-being, people like Adam Shanley and the MPOWER programme and people in HIV Ireland, to get talking about sexual health strategies and about HIV prevention and sexually transmitted infection prevention right now. That is what we need to be doing with a memorial. The Government announced through the Department of the Taoiseach and the Office of Public Works, OPW, there will be a HIV and AIDS national monument and I welcome that announcement.

I acknowledge the work of individuals such as Tonie Walsh, who have been calling for and encouraging a conversation about having an Irish AIDS memorial for many years. In an address to the National University of Ireland, NUI, Maynooth to mark World AIDS Day in 2016, Mr. Walsh said:

What is remembered, lives. Not just the names of our deceased, but their voices, their bright faces are refocused. Lives lived in adversity and often despair are recalibrated, not only for those of us mourning our dearly departed friends and lovers, but for successive generations.

These hidden histories of how we lived, how some died and other survived, yearn to be heard. ... We are in huge need of inter-generational dialogue.

He concluded his speech by saying:

It’s time. Time to dry away our tears and build from them a monument to the destruction and loss from AIDS in Ireland. Please join me as we make this a reality.

I commend all those who have been part of that process who have brought us to a place where the Government is now committed to having a national HIV and AIDS monument. I offer the Government an opportunity to make a statement here in the Houses of the Oireachtas on what that monument would look like and what process will take place. I will have some questions about that.It is important that, as opposed to just being a monument, it be a memorial that ties the past with the present and gives us an opportunity to talk about why some people are still getting AIDS, why there were 404 new cases of HIV last year, why our sexual health education system is not up to scratch and why our sexual health services are underfunded.

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail)
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Before the Minister of State responds, I welcome the students from Gaelcholáiste Mhaigh Nuad who are sitting in the Public Gallery. They are very welcome to Leinster House and I hope they will have a lovely trip. Perhaps some day one of them will sit in this Chamber as a Senator.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I join the Acting Chairperson in welcoming the students. It is great to see all the schools back in action. It is only a matter of time before some of those students will be replacing us in the Houses.

I thank Senator Warfield for raising this very important issue. The conversation about the issue is very important also because it is not just about a monument but about framing that conversation with our plans and efforts in this area, which are ongoing.

It has been 40 years since the first clinical diagnosis of AIDS in Ireland and its impact here was no less than devastating to the lives of individuals, their families and communities. The initial outbreak of HIV and the corresponding AIDS crisis was marked by fear, isolation, misinformation and stigmatisation. In those early years, much of the fear and stigmatisation arose from a lack of information and myths about transmission. It is a legacy that many communities still struggle with today. To serve as a reminder that this terrible period has not been forgotten, it was proposed that a monument be commissioned. Many strides have been made in the treatment and prevention of HIV, meaning people with HIV today can live full and enriched lives. The monument will also serve as a tribute to those friends, families, support groups, doctors, nurses, and carers who dedicated so much of their lives and work to the treatment of HIV and to improving care.

A committee chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach was established to oversee the design and commissioning of an HIV and AIDS national monument. The remit of the committee is to consider the views of relevant parties on the nature of the monument to be commissioned, to make recommendations on the location and nature of the monument and projected timelines, to oversee the commissioning and delivery by the Office of Public Works, OPW, through competition, of the design and commissioning of the monument and to assist with the official unveiling and launch of the monument.

The purpose of the competition is to commission a monument that appropriately and respectfully remembers those who have died and to mark their lives and contribution to society, while also showing solidarity with those living with and affected by HIV today. The monument will be commissioned through a competition organised and administered on behalf of the committee by the OPW. The oversight committee includes representation from HIV Ireland, Fast-Track Cities, the Irish Haemophilia Society, members of the LGBTQI+ community and the Ana Liffey Drug Project, along with representatives from the Arts Council and the OPW. The site proposed for the monument is the People’s Gardens in the Phoenix Park, which will be its permanent location. The monument will be the focal point within the site location and must be in sympathy with the People’s Gardens and their green-space environs.

The competition seeks to elicit the most ambitious, creative, inclusive, and exceptional proposal for the monument. The monument must take a physical form but there are no preconceived ideas regarding its design. Applicants are free to choose any artistic medium for the expression of the monument. It should seek to represent hope out of sadness, drawing from the different phases of the epidemic, from the devastation it brought individuals and their families in the early years to the transition from terminal illness to a life lived fully with HIV, as well as the challenge of ending the stigma associated with living with HIV and the hope for a time when HIV will be a thing of the past. The monument should seek to create a better understanding and awareness of HIV and AIDS and their impact on communities. It should also be representative of individuals, families, and communities impacted by HIV and AIDS including members of the LGBTQI+ community, people who use drugs intravenously, people who have acquired HIV through contaminated blood products and people from migrant backgrounds.

The expression of interest for the HIV and AIDS national monument competition was first advertised on 1 June 2022. It will be a two-stage open competition, with a closing date for first-stage entries of 8 July 2022. The first stage comprises the call for expressions of interest to outline the artistic concept and approach to be taken by applicants. The nature of the monument and the medium and format through which it is to be delivered are open to the choice of the applicant. The competition is open to individuals and project teams and professional and non-professional applicants. The jury will select a maximum of ten applicants in the first stage, to be shortlisted to proceed to the second stage.

I congratulate all those who have been involved in the process so far.

Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate the Minister of State's statement. As some of it was not included in the initial announcement, I will further analyse that. I will need to write to the Taoiseach and the OPW. I find it a bit unusual there is not a public consultation process but the statement indicated the committee will be engaging in that work.

Ultimately, I want to know what the legacy of the project will be. Will we have a monument that is well signposted and well delivered, that will historicise the past, that will acknowledge loss and mistakes made and that will reflect on our present and further education? I am conscious there was a group, I think from transition year, here as well. What will the involvement in the education system be?

Finally, on consultation, in the early stages of the project there were consultations held in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. If we are going to call this a national monument and it is to be truly national, we must engage with citizens in the North. Their voices must be included. When we are talking about figures they must be included as well. Everyone must be acknowledged. It cannot be a national monument if it does not include all the communities affected on this island.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Naturally, I will bring back the issue Senator Warfield has raised to the Department of the Taoiseach. There is probably enough time to accommodate all the issues of concern there. The competition is under way but as there are two stages, it will be interesting to see what comes back in. I have no doubt the Senator will engage with some of the artists when they are bringing forward their design concepts as well. I hope we will be able to deal with all the issues raised. I will certainly bring it back to the Department of the Taoiseach, especially the extra bits about our colleagues in Northern Ireland as well.