Speeches
Minister Sean Power Dept of Health and Children Response to Adjournment Debate on Wedneday 18 Oct on Sexual Health and Relationships
I thank Deputy Fiona O'Malley for raising this matter on the Adjournment this evening. I welcome this report, the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships, which is the first national study of its kind in Ireland . The study is based on the responses of 7,441 people and provides a wide range of data which will be of benefit to policy-makers and service providers alike.
The results of that survey form the basis of this report. The survey was conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland , RCSI, and is in line with research in other European countries. Its purpose is to provide useful information on attitudes and behaviours and to provide a benchmark for evaluating the impact of our policies and practices regarding HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, STIs, and our overall sexual health.
The findings are significant and convincing and send a clear message to policy-makers, parents, teachers, health care providers and society in general. That message is simple - Ireland is changing and so too are sexual attitudes and behaviours. Our sexual health policies and services cannot be allowed to fall behind, but must keep pace with this change. For example, the findings show that since 1973, the proportion of the population who agree that sex before marriage is "always wrong" fell from 71% to 6%. The findings also show that over 50% of the population believe that "homosexual sex" is never wrong. This view is even more prominent among under 25-year-olds.
This is a base line study and the findings will inform policy and service development in sexual health related areas into the future, building on current developments. There are several specific HIV and STI education and prevention programmes in place, such as a national public awareness advertising campaign to promote sexual health. The campaign is aimed at men and women in the 18 to 35 age group to increase awareness about safe sex and sexually transmitted infections. The overall goal is to increase safe sex practices, reducing the incidence of STI transmission and unwanted pregnancies among young people in Ireland .
The development and promotion of sexual health and relationships within the framework of personal and social development is a cornerstone of sex education programmes as supported by my Department and the Department of Education and Science in the school and out of school settings. In response to the specific issues regarding unplanned pregnancy, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, CPA, was established by statutory instrument in 2001, funded in its entirety by the Department of Health and Children. The CPA is a planning and co-ordinating body established to formulate and implement a strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy in Ireland .