The motion before the House from Fine Gael is a good motion and The Workers' Party will be giving it our support.
AIDS is a killer disease and the numbers infected with AIDS-HIV are growing in this country. Ireland has the unenviable distinction of having the highest proportion of babies born in this country with the HIV virus or with full blown AIDS in Europe. The numbers of people who have contracted this deadly disease through heterosexual activity is also growing. I am, therefore, dismayed that the Government have put down a self-congratulatory amendment seeking to make this issue a party political one and not a human one. The task facing us all in this country is to muster all forces to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic. I believe the motion in the name of Deputy Yates is an earnest attempt to put forward a way to tackle the AIDS-HIV problem in Ireland.
AIDS has become the major health issue of the late eighties and will now unfortunately be the health issue of the nineties. People with AIDS, HIV or AIDS-related problems are normal people who have contracted this deadly disease in a variety of ways. The Government must show, by example on the ground, that their attitude to this matter is not complacent but an active preventive and caring policy.
The introduction of a national AIDS task force would be an excellent and serious policy decision. There is no point in the Government coming before this House, blandly telling us that in comparison with other European countries our problem with AIDS is not too bad. All people infected with AIDS-HIV are human beings with feelings and families and not mere statistics.
The people who are working on the ground are encountering so much ignorance, prejudice, hostility and human tragedy, that I must congratulate them on their tireless work. These local action groups in different parts of the country are telling anyone who cares to listen the same sorry story, a lack of funding and co-ordination between the statutory and voluntary bodies.
Are we serious about tackling the AIDS epidemic in this country? If we are to be honest with ourselves, the answer at the moment appears to be no. I say this because there is no good reason for not establishing a national AIDS task force which would represent all the groups working on the issue in the country. Such a force could give national direction in the fight against AIDS and give the campaign added seriousness and enthusiasm.
With the hostility to the task force everyone who has fought campaigns in the past will tell you that a nationally co-ordinated group with representatives of local groups, is much better than disparate localised activity. Surely this is the lesson that Fianna Fáil should have learned from the Presidential campaign. Fighting the spread of AIDS deserves our best and most intelligent organisational skills to be deployed.
As a member of the Southern Health Board, I know, from submissions made by the Cork AIDS Alliance to that board, that they are seeking to build a front against AIDS-HIV. The Cork AIDS Alliance have asked for integrated co-operation between the voluntary and statutory sector as the most effective response to the problem. I supported this call in the Southern Health Board and fully support the need for a national task force to be established which would comprise representatives of the voluntary and statutory sector.
I am sure that every Deputy in the House knows of the selfless and thankless work they do on behalf of the country in their voluntary organisations. Their call for integrated co-ordination at national levels to be sincerely taken on board and accepted by the Government as the most appropriate way to tackle the problem.
I am perturbed, and it leaves me somewhat sad, that the vast majority of the funding to combat the spread of AIDS-HIV comes from the national lottery. This is a clear example of lottery money being used to prop up and supplement the Department of Health budget. Lottery money has many uses for the benefit of the country. It should not, in my view, be used for ongoing funding for such a major matter as tackling AIDS-HIV. I believe that lottery funds are for stop gap use to tackle a major problem that has just arisen. AIDS will be with us for many years to come and lottery funding is not appropriate. Funding must come from the Exchequer to deal with this problem. The Department of Health should have sufficient moneys in their budget. That is a demand we will continue to make.
There is a definite feeling in the country that the Government's information and preventive programme is complacent and dominated by the attitudes of one religious group. Information is preventive; ignorance of AIDS-HIV does kill. I fully believe that the publicity campaign in 1987 using billboards, TV, newspapers and local health centres was a good effort at disseminating information.
It amazes me, however, that the Department of Agriculture and Food can regularly run advertisements drawing the public's attention to the danger to farm animals of dogs on the loose. The Department of the Environment regularly advertise and warn the public of the dangers of drinking and driving. The Department of Health confines its warning about AIDS-HIV to small posters hanging on crowded notice boards in health centres.
There is a crying need for information on this subject and it is the Government's responsibility to give the most effective and sensible information to the public. If nothing else is achieved out of this debate the Government will have realised that there is great annoyance at their self-satisfied attitude. Information is urgently needed and wanted now.
The Minister for Health can do something very significant and at no cost to his Department to save the lives of many people. It is difficult to understand why the family planning laws on the sale of condoms are still in existence. Condoms are medically proven to be a major preventive method in halting the spread of AIDS-HIV. It is a ludicrous situation that a retailer can be prosecuted for selling a packet of condoms in a shop which is not a pharmacy. In all the other countries of the European Community members of the public can easily purchase condoms, but not in Ireland after the closure of chemists at say 6 p.m. or on Sundays. I call upon the Minister to amend the family planning laws to make the sale of condoms more accessible.
We like to pride ourselves on being a Christian country, full of charity and a major donor of money to the poor countries of the world but I am disappointed at the way we treat our people at home. Those unfortunate people who have contracted the HIV virus or AIDS tell stories of how they are made feel totally unwanted, like lepers in their own communities. It is wrong to say that Ireland has the best health care and counselling available in the health service.
The Minister for Health coming into the House last night and telling us that there are sufficient staff for the AIDS programmes was nothing short of a farce. AIDS patients need in-depth counselling to help them cope with the disease. There are not enough counsellors available and the result is that those on the staff have to cope with a workload which would not be borne by other counsellors in the health service. That is a terrible indictment of the Department of Health. The provision of counsellors is absolutely necessary to trace other people who may have been in sexual contact with people who have AIDS or HIV. By comparison one full-time counsellor in Britain has to deal with 30 patients only. That is not the case in Ireland and St. James's Hospital in Dublin has been arguing about the need for a third counsellor for some time. When we consider that St. James's Hospital handles all the AIDS-HIV cases in the greater Dublin area it is clear that the number of counsellors in Ireland is far fewer than the rest of Europe. Indeed, at a conference on AIDS held in Copenhagen in March last there was a discussion on the over-burdening of staff and how it can cause staff burn-out.
I am appalled at the intolerance and hostility shown to these unfortunate people or which they believe they receive. People who have learned that they have AIDS-HIV face a traumatic time and often are totally shocked and in distress. There is clear evidence that many of these victims feel they have to emigrate particularly to Britain, to obtain care and counselling. This is not an attack on the dedicated workers in the medical service; it is an attack on prevailing attitudes. It is also a reflection on the poor efforts of the Department of Health to explain the ways AIDS can be contracted in their publicity campaigns.
World AIDS day will be held this weekend, 1 December, when this House would do itself proud by passing this motion in the name of Deputy Yates. The Government parties should consider the human issues involved in this and not regard it as a party political issue. This is a unique opportunity for us to radically approach the problem of AIDS-HIV in Ireland by setting up a national task force which would have its own budget to halt this killer disease. Such measures are taken by the Government in other areas, for example, the setting up of ERAD. Why do they not do the same in regard to this crucially important health issue?
My colleague, Deputy Byrne, has asked me to give him five minutes of my time. Is that in order?