Safe sex not high on agenda, study reveals

FOUR out of 10 men admit that drink and drugs discourages them from using a condom, a new study reveals.

Despite a packet of 12 condoms now costing around €10, one in four said the cost was prohibitive. The study examined the sexual practices of almost 800 men in Cork and Kerry, aged between 18 and 45.

It found safe sex was not high on their agenda with nine out of 10 never using a condom when receiving oral sex with a casual partner and 42% never using a condom when engaging in anal sex.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Cork, who published the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) funded report, said it highlighted the need to target young working men. As a first step, the health authority is distributing free sexual information packs including two condoms to building workers in the south of the country.

The packs, entitled “Men at Work”, will be available in English, Polish and Russian.

HSE south senior health promotion officer Catherine Byrne said the pack encouraged men to carry condoms as sex was often spontaneous and condoms might not always be accessible at the time.

“By carrying two condoms you are prepared even if you make a mistake such as rolling it incorrectly or tearing it when removing it from the packaging,” she said.

President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Richard Morrisroe, said University College Cork’s students’ union managed to cut the price of a packet of three condoms from €4 to €2 last year by selling them at cost in vending machine around the university.

“It is a bit weird that the Government spends hundreds of thousands of euro on public health campaigns to use condoms and yet the Department of Finance decides to class them as luxury items,” said Mr Morrisroe.

“Students do not see condoms as an absolute essential, so they cut them out of their budget to the detriment of themselves and the people they sleep with,” he said.

One way of reducing the cost of condoms would be to reduce the VAT rate. Condoms are currently taxed at the higher rate of 21%.

A number of pharmacies and supermarket chains have told the CPA that they are committed to passing on any future reduction in VAT to their consumers.