The lifelong ban on gay men donating blood is to be lifted, the Minister for Health has announced.

Men who have sex with men have been banned from donating blood in Ireland since the 1980s. However, Minister Simon Harris has said that having reviewed a report by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS), he is accepting its recommendation to reduce the current lifelong ban to a one-year deferral.

In other words, a gay man who has not had sex in the past year will be allowed to donate blood.

Where a gay man has had a sexually transmitted infection, there will be a five-year deferral - he will be allowed to donate five years after that infection.

A similar policy is to come into effect in Northern Ireland in September and is already in place in other countries including the rest of the UK and Canada.

Minister Harris thanked the IBTS for its work in this area and asked it to ‘continue to engage with my officials on the development of a robust implementation plan to support this change in blood donation policy, so that the policy change, its rationale and its implications can be well implemented and clearly explained to all potential blood donors, recipients of blood products and the general public'.

"Once this is in place, it will be possible to set a date from which this policy change will commence," the Minister added.

For more information on the IBTS, click here