Age of consent 'needs to be examined' as free contraception scheme extended 

 Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly: 'My view is that the medical age of consent is 16, and if we are providing termination services free of charge to 16-year-olds, we must provide contraception free of charge to 16-year-olds.'

The age of consent in Ireland needs to be looked at as Budget 2023 saw the expansion of free contraception to women aged between 16 and 30 — yet the consent age is 17, warned Dr Padraig MacNeela, active consent programme co-lead at the University of Galway.

Dr MacNeela said there is a "contradiction there inherently" because the age of consent for medical procedures is 16 in the first place.

"That's going to be in there anyway, I suppose this new development adds to that.

"And maybe brings into sharper relief just that contradiction between what happens in your healthcare, and what could happen on a legal side."

Dr MacNeela said that Ireland is out of step with other European Union states, which have the age consent at between 14 and 16.

"You've got other pressures as well: we know from the last HBSC national survey in 2018... that a quarter of 15 to 17-year-olds are sexually active.

"So your laws should reflect what people are doing.

"In addition, then, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also said that we should avoid criminalising adolescents.

"[It] has called for provision of appropriate reproductive health services as well for adolescents.

"So all of that would be pushing you" he said.

Emotional relationship education

Dr MacNeela said that his primary concern would be around emotional relationship education.

"We know a majority of young people that we work with in active consent programmes say that they're not satisfied with the sex education that they receive in school - in particular around relationships and consent."

The minister for health has said he has sought legal advice on the plan to extend free contraception to 16-year-old girls.  

Stephen Donnelly clarified at a post-budget press briefing on Wednesday that the lower age limit is dependent on the advice he receives.

“I am waiting on the legal advice to come in,” he said.

“My view is that the medical age of consent is 16, and if we are providing termination services free of charge to 16-year-olds, which we are, we must provide contraception free of charge to 16-year-olds.

"I find it very difficult to see how we could do it otherwise.”

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Funding of €9m has been allocated to support the scheme in Budget 2022. 

Free contraception is now available from GPs, primary care centres and pharmacists who sign up to provide services under the scheme. All consultations with a medical practitioner required to access prescription contraception, the fitting of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARCs) and their removal, and the provision of prescription contraception by pharmacists will be free.