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THE HSE HAS issued a tender worth up to €505,000 for the roll-out of a pilot project for an online STI testing service.
In the first five weeks of this year, a total of 1,228 cases of HIV and STIs were reported by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in Ireland. Out of these cases, 61 were HIV diagnoses.
In 2018, a total of 14,053 STI cases were reported to the HPSC, with the most common being chlamydia, gonorrhoea and genital herpes.
The HSE currently provides public STI services through clinics around the country.
However, it said in the tender that there is an “inequity” in access to these services and that “services are struggling to cater for an increasing demand”.
“Services are currently working at full capacity and the challenges reported include lack of staff resources and clinic time, increasing waiting lists and having to turn people away,” the HSE said.
In November 2019, a national PrEP HIV prevention programme was rolled out by the HSE.
The pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment is the most recent development in the field of HIV prevention. It involves HIV-negative people taking an oral dose of the medication to reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV if sexually exposed to the virus.
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This service “may further increase the demand on public STI services”, according to the HSE.
The HSE has now tendered for the roll out of a pilot project for an online STI testing service. The maximum budget available for the project is €505,000, inclusive of VAT.
The aim of the pilot project is to “assess the feasibility, acceptability and impact of an online STI service, integrated into existing public STI clinics in Ireland”.
Online STI testing will allow asymptomatic individuals to be “tested at a time and place that is convenient to them”.
“This addresses many of the barriers to STI testing for service users, such as embarrassment, stigma, concerns about privacy, lack of local services,” the HSE said.
Responding to a query regarding how the tests would be conducted, the HSE said it is proposed that the service users would apply for a test online before conducting the test at home.
The test would then be posted back to the laboratory in a pre-paid envelope. It is anticipated that service users would receive their results within a few working days.
“Where a result is positive, the service user will receive a call from one of the medical team and be referred into an STI clinic for treatment,” the HSE said.
The HSE is proposing that the pilot programme be run from two large public STI clinic sites in Dublin, one large public STI clinic site in Cork and one small satellite STI clinic site in Kerry.
The HSE’s Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme will establish a steering group to support and oversee the roll-out, progression and completion of the pilot project.
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Well ‘republicans’, and AAAPBP what now? I thought the Special Criminal Court was a fascist institution but this guy only gets 7 years for trying to murder dozens of people he should have got life.
Maybe it’s not the evil institution you think it is?
“Now you were very bold but if you super promise not to associate with other murdering terrorist sc&m we will make it 5 years then with automatic remission you get three and a half years for supplying bombs that could have produced 3-4 Omagh bombings and killed 100+ people if deployed the right way”
Then he insults the court by refusing to agree to avoid people he’s meant to avoid anyway.
When will Irish courts learn PLEADING GUILTY IS NOT THE SAME AS FEELING REMORSE it’s just a tactic to get you to go easy on them and you always fall for it.
They oppose the special criminal court portraying it as if it’s our version of a GITMO Tribunal when it’s the exact same as any other Irish court but for the lack of jury:
•Weak
•Actively pro defendant instead of objective going needlessly out of its way to go easy on the accused
•Rarely gives the maximum sentence
•Allows minor technicalness to become more important than the actual guilt or innocence of the accused
So like with every other policy area, real life experience shows that the characature they portray doesn’t exist
Or are the U.N also connected to dissident Republicanism in your mind because they too object to the Special Criminal Court?
“The human rights and constitutional implications of the Special Criminal Court must also be analysed. The court has been criticised by the UN Human Rights Commission has highlighting Ireland’s profligate use of the Special Criminal Court as a concerning development, in particular noting its potential damaging effect on the right to a fair trial under Article 14 ICCPR.”
No cited cases of abuse or miscarriage of justice
A review of our emergency powers and special courts was made a few years ago, some things recommended that should have been done were not (like a time limit of state of emergency), some were (like prohibition of capital punishment even during a state of emergency), the SCC review found it behaves like any other court.
Nobody need worry about you getting rid of it though as you’ll never be anywhere near having the power to do so, since you prefer to sit on the sidelines and talk. We could have a govt with far more progressive policies right now if you the Indos SF and Lab had offered FF a confidence and supply deal I happen to know you’d have been pushing on an open door with many policies universal healthcare, maintenance of free college, updated labour laws. But you’re all talk
You’re attacking a straw man (I said AAAPBP were involved in the bombing) because you don’t have the capacity to respond to a more nuanced argument (what I was actually saying: that they want rid of the SCC but cases like this prove the courts not extreme at all it’s just as soft as the rest)
T”hey oppose the special criminal court ……. when it’s the exact same as any other Irish court but for the lack of jury”
A bit like saying. It’s the exact same as any other bomb except it’s nuclear.
Still what can we expect from someone who believes that a government led by FF will have “progressive policies”?
And again. Just to be sure you’ve gotten the message into your little mind.
There is precisely NO connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism
You look absolutely ridiculous hysterically and repeatedly responding to something I never said. For the third time I said they both oppose the court
They do t have a jury because organised crime and terrorists used to threaten them (and their families) to get the verdict they wanted. There’s the same rules of evidence (with one exception never used) , same burden of proof etc etc
This is what I keep saying about you being locked in an ideological cage. If someone’s not for 1000% everything you want then NOTHING they do can be progressive. Ever hear the saying never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. FF introduced free primary and secondary school, medical cards, free travel, most of the welfare system, the entire college grant system but for the most recent changes, almost doubled pensions and where did nearly all our labour and anti discrimination laws come from? Not labour who are more right wing in practice than FG Burton and Quinn proved that. Introduced the minimum wage over IBECs hysterical objections saying it would cost thousands of jobs.
But none of that matters because it’s not full blown utopian socialism. That’s why you’re in an ideological cage and why your party will never accomplish anything because you want everything or nothing and don’t think increments or phased improvements are worth it but a minimum wage or medical card made a big difference to REAL PEOPLE in the real world while your kind were off in theoryland
Read the two set up words before that bracket it tells you what the portion in brackets is referring to, your straw man argument
I’m gonna ignore you now. You are either a troll in which case why feed you or you’re so ACTUALLY stupid you can’t grasp basic conversation like the brackets issue
@CeannairBlue:
I achieved what I set out to achieve. That is to demonstrate that there is no precisely connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism despite Ryan’s and Eye-c-u’s insinuations.
You see he’s still replying to an argument (AAA is connected to terrorists) that nobody made while ignoring the actual argument that was being made
Despite it being clarified six times that this argument wasn’t being made he’s still replying to it. I have to assume he’s a troll or mentally ill rather than just badly informed because you can be uninformed but it wouldn’t explain why you keep responding to something nobody said even when it’s been repeatedly clarified they weren’t saying that
So if that’s the case there’s no point discussing anything when someone’s not rational, it won’t enlighten anyone reading this. If he’s a troll…what a waste of someone’s time. Why spend your time basically spamming a news site even to kill time on public transport or something it’s a waste. Either way there’s no point. It has to be one or the other, psychological issue or troll . I’ve seen some nutters in my time (I’ve tried to have rational talk with youth defence which didn’t end well) but nobody could be that irrational it’s impossible
@Ryan Carroll:
And again Ryan. If you attempt to insinuate there is any connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism I will firmly slap you down. The easiest option is not to introduce the AAA into articles that have precisely nothing to do with us.
FOUR TDs attended a court hearing in support of a dissident Republican who had been convicted of causing criminal damage by daubing an anti-internment slogan on Derry’s historic city walls.
Fianna Fail’s Eamon O Cuiv, Independent TDs for Dublin, Clare Daly and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Independent Donegal TD Thomas Pringle attended the hearing at the Crown Court in Derry yesterday to support local councillor Gary Donnelly who, along with two others, was convicted last year of causing criminal damage and sentenced to six months in prison.
@Eye_c_u:
Same question as above. What in your deluded mind do you imagine is the AAA connection to this incident?
Has blueshirt HQ sent out a memo whereby the AAA is to be connected with dissident Republicans in the public mind?
@Patches O Houlihan:
It’s well documented here that I have no time for PBP/AAA on economics you have enough deluded minds to go around but nonetheless trying to connect them to this fool is quiet a stretch.
The SCC is a necessary evil IMO.
Stephen’s attempt below to connect FF/FG to it is just as ridiculous.
If you look at how they’ve governed and their voter base you’ll see a world of difference
FG always had a wealthier support base and big farmers FF more working and middle class they were always a more populist party which is why the Labour Party never took off like the UK as FF stood their clothes in most areas even when in coalition with the PDs (which never would have happened if labour hadn’t jumped ship in mid Dail in 1994 if they’d stayed Ireland would have had a centre left govt all through the boom probably would have made many of same mistakes but might have NOT done a lot that PDs wanted like broadband privatisation hospital collocation…)
A lot of people arnt old enough to really be able to compare them but they’re not the same
Easy look up eirigi on YouTube watch them protest with the aaa about water charges. Look up a few Facebook pages and you seem them all lumped in together at apollo house. You’re welcome
he needs to be jailed taking into account what could have happened due to his actions, ie, life sentence. These clowns could easily wipe out your family and have the collective IQ of a garden shed.
I wonder why they waited until he was on the bus before apprehending him, if he’d been under constant surveillance. They could have stopped him in the taxi, arrested at Busaras while he waited etc. Maybe they wanted to get him the heaviest sentence they could, as a deterrent to others.
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