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Updated 4.30pm
THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT Ireland’s total ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood is to be lifted was today welcomed by gay rights activists, though they pointed out that the country’s blood donation rules are still discriminatory.
Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed he is accepting recommendations by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTF) to move to a one year deferral period.
This will mean that gay and bisexual men will have to wait one year before being able to donate blood after last sexual contact, and that anyone with a history of a sexually transmitted infection will be required to wait for five years.
It will bring Ireland into line with a similar policy set to commence in Northern Ireland in September, and which has already been enacted in the rest of the UK.
Progress
Speaking to TheJournal.ie today Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), Brian Sheehan, said the move was “very significant progress” and long overdue.
However, he said the new system will “still leave certain people discriminated against because of who they are”.
“So if you’re a gay man in a committed relationship you can never donate blood unless you’re celibate,” he said.
The IBTF has long accepted that the ban is discriminatory against gay and bisexual men – it still is discriminating against gay and bisexual men, but we see this as a very significant step in getting rid of all traces of discrimination.
Sheehan believes that easing this ban, which was “based on 30-year-old views”, will now result in greater numbers donating – and not just the gay and bisexual men who are now allowed to.
“Some people simply felt the system was unjust and were refraining from donating because they thought it was so outdated.”
Implications
Minister Harris has said his department will continue to work with the IBTS so that the implications of lifting the ban could be “explained to all potential blood donors, recipients of blood products and the general public”.
No date has yet been set for when the policy will change.
A ban on men who have sex with men donating blood has been in place in Ireland since the 1980s when it was introduced as an emergency measure at the height of the AIDs epidemic.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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But will it be like the great snow of 1947 which my mother told me about as a child. Seemingly, it started snowing on the last Friday in February and continued into March,paralysing the country and closing roads and rail. Lakes froze over and they held dances and skating on the lakes, Snow drifts buried towns and villages and poor farm animals succumbed to the weather,schools closed and the snow stayed on the ground until May, I just remembered about ‘the great snow’ when I read the article above this morning,RIP mam.
Where did this come from??
@Tommy C: Well it didn’t come up from the Azores.
@Tommy C: The Sky ;)
@Tommy C: Don’t stand around asking questions just run and get the bread.
@Tommy C: sky.
Now that’s more like it.
Proper feckin March weather.
@Skipper Mac: I’ll take sunshine and dryness over cold and wet any day. Bring back last week’s weather!
Come on Liverpool
@Rodger 5: is the weather shite there to?
@Rodger 5: any Irish men on that team
@Rodger 5: Up the Dubs
@Fergus O’Connor: up the dubs.
Sponsored by Brennans
But what about Global warming???
Cold weather with heavy snow in 1947??. Imagine!!. If we actually look back at weather fore asts over the years we most likely had all kinds of weather around this time. Governments will always try to fi d ways to take our hard earned cash through taxation. Ha
@Catherine Winston: How did you manage to shoehorn a gripe about taxes into the weather?
@Catherine Winston: Is your keyboard working .You’re firing a few blanks there Catherine.
@Catherine Winston: You should probably google climate change
@Catherine Winston: You should probably google climate change
@Catherine Winston: Did you not know that it was 21°c in the UK last week? In February. That’s summertime temperatures in February! And now it’s going to snow a week later and that seems normal to you!? In January in Australia, you could eat baked apples directly from the trees. And “when you look back at weather forecasts over the years”, you see a trend of global warming. “Most likely” isn’t a term scientists like to use.
Heavy snow falling in Kerry
@Darcy: ah shite heading 4 Kerry tommorow mon
@liam ward60: good luck with that
@liam ward60: Buy a few sliced pans and a pound of butter an stay under the covers.
Just started snowing in Clare!
@Sam Harms: oh feck sake Clare playing Limerick today
Glorious summer weather for two days, then back to the pits.
Global warming already working it’s charm I see!
@IrishFreeThinking: I can see the daffodils in my garden looking hopeless today.
@PC Principal:
Fair daffodils we weep to see
You haste away so soon
Your comment gives new meaning to this poetry.
@Honeybee: As a honeybee, your word is gospel in this regard.
It was already snowing before they issued the warning!
Global Warming, Climate Change ???????? Gibberish
Perfect all weather March weather.
March of many weathers,as the old saying goes.
Heavy snow in Tralee. Absolutely no warning of this in the last 24 hours. Yeah, climate change is nonsense!
FAKE weather reports from the journal again.very warm Sunday here in castlebar windows opened and @ 12 16 PM while its overcast here we have absolutely no rain or snow or sleet Yet
@liam ward60: Ah yeah. It’s not raining in your village therefore it’s all a lie.
@liam ward60: 2pm till 8am tomorrow. Starting in the south and working northwards.
@liam ward60: it’s bucketing down sleet and rain in the Burren
@An bhearna: Haha my village?
@David Walters: was also forecast yesterday sat turned out to be blue skys here till around six pm
But definitely not RED.
That’s mad. It’s warmer in Rome.
it’s so warm for the time of year.
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