Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna has said the Government's "failure to renew its annual grants to two of Ireland's leading AIDS organisations is placing vital services in jeopardy".
Speaking at an AIDS seminar which she organised in Dublin yesterday, she said Cairde and the Dublin AIDS Alliance have yet to be told whether annual grants of "about Pounds 50,000", normally paid in February, will be paid this year.
Awareness campaigns on condoms and safe sex, as well as counselling services for people with AIDS, are among services which could be endangered, she said.
While describing some recent EU initiatives on AIDS as "exemplary", Ms McKenna criticised the European Commission for not properly informing AIDS organisations about the Pounds 50 million five-year Europe Against AIDS programme.