Lifetime ban on MSM blood donation lifted in Ireland

Under the new rules, a man who last had sex with another man more than 12 months ago will now be able to donate blood if he meets the other blood donor selection criteria.

Health Minister Simon Harris announced an end to the ban last Summer following a recommendation from the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).

A legal challenge in the High Court, aimed at overturning the ban, was dropped in the wake of the announcement.

At the time, solicitor Gareth Noble of Dublin firm KOD Lyons said the litigants still did not “know the timeline for the change in policy”.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Harris said: “In June of last year, I accepted the recommendations of the IBTS to change their blood donation deferral policies for men who have sex with men, as well as for donors who have had a sexually transmitted infection.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IBTS for their work over the past 6 months which today sees these recommendations brought to fruition within the timescale agreed.”

The move mirrors a similar shift in policy in Northern Ireland, where a lifetime ban was replaced with a one-year deferral from 1 September 2016 on the initiative of Health Minister Michelle O’Neill.

The move in Northern Ireland followed a Court of Appeal ruling last March, which overturned the High Court’s previous decision that the blood ban was irrational and infected with apparent bias.