Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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390. To ask the Minister for Health further to the Topical Issue debate of 7 December 2016, if he will provide the timeline mentioned in the debate. [5526/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Sexual Health Strategy 2015-2020 was launched in October 2015. The strategy was developed in response to a recommendation of the National AIDS Strategy Committee on the need to establish clear leadership within the health sector around the area of sexual health. The Strategy contains 71 recommendations that address all aspects of sexual health and a Sexual Health Action Plan for 2015-2016 that contains 18 priority actions for immediate attention.

One of the priority actions identified in the Action Plan for 2016 is to 'Prioritise, develop and implement guidance to support clinical decision making for STI testing, screening and treatment and on the appropriate use of antiretroviral therapy in HIV prevention’. An Implementation Group has now been established within the HSE as an outcome of this action. This group will make recommendations on the appropriate use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in the overall context of the national approach to HIV prevention.

A multi-sectoral PrEP working group with professional and community representation has been established by the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy programme to make recommendations on HIV PrEP in Ireland. The first meeting was held in May 2016. To inform the group’s work a report on population estimates of MSM (men who have sex with men) eligible and likely to avail of PrEP in Ireland using data from the MISI 2015 survey has been drafted and is at the consultation stage with a view to publication at the end of Quarter 1 2017. In response to a specific request from clinicians, practical guidance for health care professionals on caring for those accessing PrEP online was circulated by clinicians on the PrEP working group to the learned societies for specialists working in the area of HIV and STIs. Priority questions in relation to the feasibility, acceptability and uptake of HIV PrEP in Ireland have been identified and work has commenced work on identifying how these priority questions can be answered through a project within existing clinical infrastructures. The timeframe for commencement of such a project and the number of participants involved is not yet known.

The report on attitudes and beliefs of STI and HIV health care workers on timing of antiretroviral therapy and PrEP is complete. The results have been used to draft a HSE statement on the use of antiretroviral therapy for individuals living with HIV. This draft will be presented to the HSE leadership team in early 2017.