Couples in Ireland will have access to one publicly-funded round of IVF from September, but there’s limits to who can apply.
This will be the first time in the history of the State there will be publicly funded reproductive treatment.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said: “For too many couples in Ireland it simply hasn’t been affordable and so what we’re doing is providing full funding for eligible couples for three cycles of IUI (intrauterine insemination) and one cycle of IVF.”
Eligible couples will be fully funded for one round of IVF, subject to qualification criteria.
The criteria includes an age limit of 41 for women, and 60 for men.
One IVF cycle will be provided for couples who’ve had no more than one privately-funded round.
Eligible couples must be ordinarily resident in the State, have no living children from the existing relationship, and include at least one partner with no living child.
The BMI of an intending birth mother must also be within the range of 18.5 kg/m2 – 30.0 kg/m2.
The government are putting 10million in funding towards the service, which will initially be provided by private clinics on behalf of the HSE, while the HSE builds up “a network of public capacity to deliver the service directly within the public health system”.
According to Mr Donnelly, the first national HSE centre is being opened in Cork next year.
