Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. As regards policy, when the witnesses from the curriculum unit are designing guidelines for education for young people, such as in respect of sex and reproductive health education - the areas of particular interest for the committee - do they consider models from other countries, particularly those in Europe? Can they comment on evidence presented last week to the committee regarding sexual education recently being made compulsory from the age of ten in the Netherlands? A corollary of that was a reduction of one third in teenage pregnancies between 2012, when it was made compulsory, and 2016. I ask the witnesses to comment on that.

My other question is similar to that of Deputy O'Reilly regarding the use of outside agencies. Senator Ruane was feeling unwell and went home. Her daughter attends a school in Tallaght in which sex education is delivered by an outside agency named Accord, which is affiliated to the Catholic church. Senator Ruane has removed her daughter from that class because she has serious issues with that agency and its affiliation. The Department's proposals repeatedly state that the ethos of a school may be taken into consideration. The ethos of school is very much a framework for how this is delivered. The ethos of the school has to be managed within the school framework, involving all agencies, including the board of management. Some 94% of boards of management of national schools in this country contain leading local members of the Catholic church or are controlled by the Catholic church. Do the witnesses consider there to be an obstacle to progressing the process of dealing with teenage pregnancy and sex education in order to prevent as many crisis pregnancies and to get on with the business of educating a future generation in a full and wholesome way about reproductive health and helping them to live their lives in a way that prevents the outcomes of crisis pregnancies such as, for example, the increased use of the abortion pill? Do the witnesses think that it would be of assistance to remove the framework of Catholic ethos from national schools? I am not suggesting that the church should be moved to Mars or some such place but, rather, that the ethos of Catholicism should be removed from the delivery of sexual health programmes in schools. The latter might have long-term positive outcomes, particularly for young girls.