Madam, - What, exactly, is Mrs Mary Stewart talking about (March 9th)? Her vague platitudes about women taking control of their sexual health are all well and good, until one considers the shocking depths of sheer absurdity she has plumbed to arrive at her position.
Her argument rests implicitly on a perceived positive correlation between condom use and an increase in STDs. And this preposterous suggestion alone is advanced against the case for the Government abolishing VAT on condoms. Does it really need to be stated that the problem lies not with the condoms themselves, but with the fact that not enough people are using them?
But ignorance is an important factor here, and education as to the dangers of unsafe sex will do more in the long run to combat any further increase in an STD problem than will cheap condoms. If the Government really wants to tackle whatever STD problem there may be then it will continue, or expand, its programme of sexual health education in schools as well as ensuring the ready availability of cheap, if not free, condoms.
Mrs Stewart implores women not to depend on "a piece of rubber" to ensure their sexual health, and to "wake up" and "take control" of their health. One can only conclude that she is proposing that the women of Ireland take a nationwide vow of sexual abstinence. Such suggestions are not only painfully anachronistic and wilfully blind to modern realities; they are also pernicious in their irresponsibility.
We must accept that people will always have sex. We must also accept that people do not always act in their own best interests. And if abolishing taxes on condoms would encourage their purchase by even one person in the 15 per cent who said the price discouraged use, then of course those taxes should be abolished. - Yours, etc,
OWEN CORRIGAN, Blessington Street, Dublin 7.