A call for sexual health screening to be made more readily accessible was made yesterday by the Well Woman Centre in its 2005 annual report.
The report said the demand for its full screening and treatment services for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) continued to grow last year.
There was also a continuing increase in women attending for cervical smear tests.
In her report, Well Woman chief executive Alison Begas said the notion of a comprehensive national sexual health strategy did not appear on the policy agenda of any political party. Some forward thinking in this regard could save lives and reduce pressure on hospitals.
She also called for testing for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which caused 99 per cent of cervical cancer in Britain.
"Unfortunately, the delivery of the national cervical screening programme is progressing at a snail's pace, and it appears that no provision has been built into the programme for HPV testing," Ms Begas said.
Ms Begas also called on the Government to move to bring forward plans to stop "rogue" counselling services.
These were agencies operating under the guise of being non-directive, who claimed to offer information on all options, but in reality employed manipulative and often bullying techniques when women sought information on abortion.
"The fact that such agencies can continue to exist with impunity is hugely damaging for women in a crisis pregnancy situation," she said.
The report states that the most notable increase in demand for the full STI screening in 2005 had been at the Pembroke Road clinic, Dublin, which offered the service to both men and women.
Last year was the first full 12 months of male STI screening and men accounted for 25 per cent of those using the service.
The centre's Dublin clinics also detected about 10 per cent of the national total number of chlamydia infections.