Irish IVF Public Funding Update 2025

A message from our Medical Director, Dr. John Kennedy. 

“Last week saw the yearly Irish budget announcements. Some of it was relevant to us at Thérapie Fertility, and the wider fertility community and so we wanted to talk a little bit about what that means for you.   

Last year, a public funding IVF scheme was introduced. It had certain restrictions and certain criteria that you had to achieve in order to be eligible for publicly funded fertility treatment, either IUI, IVF or ICSI. In the last budget announcement, it was announced that these criteria would be widened, and a greater cohort of patients would be included in it. 

The two big changes that were announced last week, are around secondary infertility and the use of donor gametes.  

Last year, secondary infertility, or couples who had already had a child together were not eligible for a publicly funded cycle. Now, they are. So secondary infertility has been recognized as being a real thing. 

The second, and this was probably the more glaring omission from the initial offering last year, was the use of donor sperm and potentially donor eggs. We know there's lots of couples, specifically same sex couples, who will obviously require donor sperm to avail of treatment, and throughout the last year, there hasn't been a possibility of applying for funding for them. 

What the scheme is committed to now, is enabling those couples who need donor sperm, to avail of a fertility treatment cycle with donor sperm. Now, the small print on this, we don't know. We don't know, will the government pay for the cost of the donor sperm? We don't know what the eligibility criteria will be. 

It is unclear yet if couples will be required to undergo IUIs before they are eligible for IVF, as is the case in the UK. It’s also unclear if donor egg is going to be included in this or not.  

This time last year, one of the biggest concerns when the scheme started was that they'd put it in place and the shortcomings would never be addressed. So, this is incredibly important that they have done that and in reasonably prompt fashion. Of course, there are still cohorts of patients missing. There's clearly a need to provide a second cycle, because so many couples will need one. There's clearly a need not to restrict cycles, for people who've had two privately funded cycles. It would also be great to see a softening of the BMI criteria as well. Or at least, in the absence of that, some adequate and actual supports to help people with weight loss, rather than just telling them to go away. Overall, the updates to this scheme are very much to be welcomed.  

If you are hoping to access the public funded scheme, you can attend your GP, they will get you referred, and then at that point you can come through to us. Obviously, the quality care and the standard care and the cycles you would do here, are identical irrespective if you come through as a publicly funded patient or a private patient.

We are really delighted with the news and, if this is something that's suitable for you, act early. Take care." 

Dr. Joh Kennedy