Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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756. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to review the 12-month bone marrow donation ban for gay and bisexual men; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9387/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry (IUBMR) is a register of people who are willing to donate their bone marrow/stem cells if they are found to match an unrelated patient needing a stem cell transplant. The IUBMR is part of a worldwide network of unrelated donor registries.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) hosts the Irish Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry (IUBMR). Donors wishing to donate bone marrow provide a DNA sample and are then placed on a database. As the IUBMR is hosted by the IBTS, blood group and infectious disease markers are tested at the time of donor registration. Some registries undertake this testing at a later date.

The IUBMR performs searches (for unrelated matching donors) on behalf of St James's Hospital and Children's Health Ireland (CHI) at Crumlin and Unrelated Bone Marrow Registries worldwide. Unlike for blood and blood components, the IBTS is not involved in the collection, processing and storage of bone marrow donations. The collection, processing and storage of bone marrow happens in the hospital.

The World Marrow Donor Association (www.wmda.info) sets out general eligibility criteria for bone marrow and blood stem cell donors, at the time of registration and also at the time of collection/harvest. The IUBMR follows this guidance. The IBTS has advised that men who have sex with men (MSM) who are willing to donate bone marrow can apply to join the IUBMR.

If a donor on the IUBMR is selected to donate, he or she undergoes a comprehensive medical assessment by the collection centre hospital (St James's Hospital) to determine whether the donor is fit and healthy to donate. The decision to proceed to donate depends upon this assessment and the acceptance of the donor by the recipient's transplant medical team at the other hospital. This process is identical throughout the world.

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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757. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to review the 12-month blood donation ban for gay and bisexual men; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9388/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The remit of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) is to provide a safe, reliable and robust blood service to the Irish health system. A major objective of the IBTS is to ensure that it always has the necessary programmes and procedures in place to protect both the recipients and the donors of blood and blood products. The IBTS constantly keeps all deferral policies under review to ensure the ongoing safety of blood and the products derived from it.

The IBTS lifted its lifelong ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood in January 2017, when the deferral policy was reduced to a period of one year following their last sexual encounter with a man.

The IBTS continues to keep this, and all of its deferral policies, under active review in the light of scientific evidence, emerging infections and international experience.

The IBTS advise that a review is underway which examines the risks associated with social behaviours that may result in a deferral from blood donation due to risks of transmission of infectious diseases. This will include a review of the 12-month deferral currently in place for men that have sex with men.