Ireland’s existing Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) is being blamed for the continued rise in new HIV cases in the country.

Noel Donnellon from ACT UP Dublin was speaking as figures were released showing that 531 people in the country were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2018, the highest number on record.

He said: “We are absolutely in a crisis, we are seeing rising numbers of new diagnoses, in direct opposition with what is happening with the rest of Europe, and it’s not a coincidence that we also have an outdated or non-existent sex education programme compared to other countries too.” He suggested a number of elements should form part of a HIV prevention program including “better education”.

Some commentators disputed the assertion regarding RSE by pointing out that in 2017 official figures published by the HSE show that only 26% of new HIV cases involved people who were born in Ireland; 63% were born abroad; and 11% did not have information on country of birth.