Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Health the status of funding for the rapid HIV testing service (details supplied); if his Department plans to fund this service in view of its successful pilot; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6565/17]

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.

As this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE for a direct reply to issue to the deputy.