Ms Danielle Gayson:

Deputy Byrne asked about the education in school in subjects such as social, personal and health education, SPHE, and whether it affects us. I am only in third year at present and we have been doing different modules in SPHE for the past three years. In first year it was smoking but we did not really do much about it. It did not give us any information about how much it can affect us or what it can do to us. It did not influence people in the class in their decisions on whether to smoke. In second year we did alcohol. We had to do a project for that. It was a little poster about the different things alcohol can influence and the effects it can have. That did have an influence. We had a different teacher so it was taught to us slightly differently from how the first year module was taught. It affected many people in the class. They all had their own opinions on it and they made their decisions based on them. It is not really the course that has an influence, but the teacher's means of teaching the course.