Sexual health services are being starved of funding and resources while the Minister for Health continues to pay lip service to HIV prevention, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt today\u2019s Health Committee meeting on sexual health services, we heard that while the HSE and community organisations are doing great work to try to deliver services, they are doing so with one hand tied behind their backs because they are starved of funding and resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the areas that came up again and again was HIV prevention. In 2019, the HSE commenced a national HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme. PrEP is a potential game changer in reducing HIV transmission, but it needs to be more readily available.<\/p>\n
\u201cFigures released to me by the HSE show that PrEP waiting lists remain persistently high at around 800 people. In Dublin, the wait time is up to a year, while waiting lists in Limerick and Clare are closed to new appointments. Meanwhile, Waterford has no PrEP service at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt today\u2019s committee, the HSE said that they requested 28 new staff for last year to meet demand for PrEP. However, just seven wholetime equivalents were provided in the 2025 National Service Plan. Not one of these staff was allocated to services outside of Dublin, in what the HSE described as the least worst way of deploying resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2026, meanwhile, not one new staff member was provided for PrEP services \u2013 despite the level of unmet need in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be possible to end HIV transmissions in Ireland, but to get there we need action, not just empty rhetoric. And we have the tools to end new HIV transmissions in Ireland by 2030, which is the Government\u2019s own target, but the next critical step is resourcing and investing in those tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndoubtedly, progress has been made in recent years. But serious gaps in sexual health services remain.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersistent funding shortfalls are preventing the HSE and community organisations from delivering services to all who need them.\u00a0It is not sustainable to expect them to continue to deliver high-quality services on shoestring budgets and with constrained resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, this is a political failing. The Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy must take responsibility for this, and provide the resources needed to allow sexual health services to be delivered effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 6, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sexual health services are being starved of funding and resources while the Minister for Health continues to pay lip service to HIV prevention, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said: \u201cAt today\u2019s Health Committee meeting on sexual health services, we heard that while the HSE and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,841,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-hiv","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n