Pharmacists have called on the Government to cut tax on condoms by arguing a drop in price could curb sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.
The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU), which represents 1,600 chemists nationwide, branded the Government's approach to condoms as utterly nonsensical.
Darragh O'Loughlin, chairman of the IPU's Community Pharmacy Committee
Family planning agencies, opposition politicians and student organisations have already urged the abolition of the 21 per cent VAT on the contraceptives.
Darragh O'Loughlin, chairman of the IPU's Community Pharmacy Committee, said classing condoms as luxury items sent out a mixed message about sexual health.
"How can the Government justify charging VAT on condoms? By charging VAT on condoms, the state is making them unnecessarily expensive," he said.
"Removing the VAT on condoms, as is the case in many other European countries, would send out a clear signal to people that the Government is encouraging them not to have unprotected sex, which risks sexually transmitted infections or an unplanned pregnancy."
In the first survey of its kind carried out in the Republic, last year's Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships found sexually transmitted infections had surged by 243 per cent between 1998 and 2003.
The research carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland also showed 14 per cent of people polled didn't use a condom when having sex with a person they had met for the first time.
PA