Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2021
551. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Health the progress he has made in delivering the commitments made in the HIV Paris Declaration to fast-tracking measures to end AIDS by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47484/21]
View answerThe provision of services to those affected by HIV is a priority action under the National Sexual Health Strategy 2015 - 2020. A major landmark was reached in the implementation of this action through the implementation of the national programme of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment by the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme (SHCPP).
PrEP is now being delivered in a phased manner through approved services that meet the National Standards for PrEP Service Delivery. There are currently thirteen public and nine private approved PrEP service providers in Ireland; details are available through the following link: www.sexualwellbeing.ie/getprep . Full funding of €5.4 million was secured for PrEP in 2020 and for subsequent years, including allocations for the recruitment of additional staff.
Whilst the PrEP programme remains fully funded, implementation has been impacted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. All health services, including STI/HIV/PrEP services, are continuing to face constraints, resulting from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. These include attendance by appointment only, or online as a result of the need to maintain social distancing, and the necessary redeployment of personnel to diverse COVID-19 related duties, which include testing, contact tracing, vaccination and front-line patient care.
Despite significant service restrictions in 2020/21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, PrEP services continued to see new and review existing PrEP service users. Many services adapted how they worked, delivering some care on a virtual platform.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the HSE SHCPP has been in regular communication with public STI/PrEP services and community partners, and is working together with HIV Ireland to maintain an updated list of service availability. Information for users on how to access services is available here: www.hivireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/Sexual-Health-Service-Restrictions.pdf.
Services have been working hard to restore and increase service capacity throughout 2021 notwithstanding the challenges faced by the ongoing pandemic, the recent cyber-attack and, most recently, a national Early Infectious Syphilis outbreak.
The Paris Declaration referred to by the Deputy is a commitment made by cities participating in the Fast Track Cities global initiative to scale up their local responses to HIV. Ireland joined this initiative in 2019 with initial funding of €450K provided to the HSE, to support commencement of the initiative in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick.
Fast Track Cities implementation includes expanded community HIV testing and outreach in key urban centres, targeted outreach to key at-risk groups, public campaigns on stigma reduction and promotion of the PrEP programme, and development of a co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation workstream. Steering groups, which include representation from my Department and the HSE SHCPP, have been established and are now in place, working to progress this initiative in the participating cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.
