Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In other words, teachers opt in to it, which is precisely the issue because not every teacher is engaging. We need to do much more work in this area. I accept that there have been improvements but, as I said, there is much more to be done in relation to sex education and not, by the way, only for our young people, but right across the board. We heard from medical people over the past couple of weeks about the lack of knowledge around contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, relationship awareness, pornography, and so on. Regardless of what issue we are talking about, education is key. As a former teacher, I am very aware that almost every issue will come back to education. We really need to get this right in the primary school setting.

In regard to the opt-in to continuous professional development, it may be ten, 15 or 20 years since teachers left training college and as such we need to be doing more around this issue. I accept that the witnesses cannot answer on that issue today, but it is nevertheless important to make that point.