Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 June 2022
803. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health if he intends to bring forward regulations to facilitate the implementation of the free contraception scheme due to commence in August 2022 for 17- to 25-year-olds; when he intends to bring forward these regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33845/22]
View answerThe Programme for Government, 2020 commits to providing free contraception for women, starting with the 17-25 age cohort. My Department's Contraception Implementation Group was convened in July, 2021 and has been working with partners, including the HSE, towards ensuring that the scheme will commence in Q3, 2022. Funding of approximately €9m has been allocated for this in Budget 2022.
The scheme will provide for:
- The cost of prescription contraception;
- The cost of necessary consultations with medical professionals to discuss suitable contraception for individual patients and to enable prescription of same;
- The cost of fitting and/or removal of various types of long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) plus any necessary checks, by medical professionals certified to fit/remove same;
- The cost of training and certifying additional medical professionals to fit and remove LARCs;
- The cost of providing the wide range of contraceptive options currently available to GMS (medical) card holders, which will also be available through this scheme, including contraceptive injections, implants, IUS and IUDs (coils), the contraceptive patch and ring, and various forms of oral contraceptive pill, including emergency contraception.
- The scheme will be open to all 17-25 year-old women ordinarily resident in Ireland.
The design of citizen engagement information and publicity campaigns to support and promote the roll out of the scheme will be finalised in the coming weeks, to be launched in the month preceding and during the initial phase of scheme roll-out.
Formal consultations with medical representative bodies with regard to service provision under the scheme have commenced and are ongoing. Following recent advice from the Attorney General's office regarding the legal framework for the scheme, consideration is now being given to providing this by way of primary legislation, and not via regulations.
