Ms Rachael Treanor:

On behalf of the National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, and the national youth health programme, NYHP, I thank members for the invitation to speak today on the review of relationships and sexuality education. The National Youth Council of Ireland is the representative body for 51 national voluntary youth work organisations working with young people in every community in the country. We represent and support the interests of our member organisations and use our collective experience to act on issues that impact on young people. The national youth health programme, is a partnership between the National Youth Council of Ireland, the Health Service Executive and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with a vision for Ireland to be a country where all young people can experience positive health and well-being.

As outlined in our submission, sexual health is a specialist area of work for the health programme, working in partnership with the HSE's sexual health and crisis pregnancy programme. Working in collaboration, we have developed three training programmes: the B4u Decide programme, which explores relationships and sexual education; the understanding young people and pornography programme; and the good practice in sexual health promotion programme, which enables the development of an organisational sexual health policy. The health programme and NYCI also contribute at a national level to a number of key strategic groups and committees one of which includes the crisis pregnancy and sexual health promotion training strategy

I do not want to quote pages of statistics, as in our submission we have outlined important findings. I want to highlight, however, some findings that illustrate what is affecting young people’s sexual health. In 2015, the NYHP conducted a rapid mental health needs assessment among youth work organisations to investigate the mental health needs of young people. The main issues identified as affecting the mental health and well-being included body image, relationships and sexuality. In the beginning of 2018, we conducted a rapid needs assessment to investigate young men’s health and the key issues identified affecting the health of young men included relationships, confidence, sexuality and body image. The online world young people now utilise further affects their sexual health development. A recent report by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, NSPCC, on the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people found that on first viewing pornography, young people report a mixture of emotions including curiosity, shock and confusion. These emotions subside, however, on repeated viewing whether pornography is deliberately sought out or accidentally viewed and that substantial minorities of older children wanted to try things out they had seen in pornography.

Within the youth work sector, the aforementioned needs and issues are addressed through the delivery and implementation of the programmes that the health programme currently delivers. Within our submission we have outlined the aims and objectives of those programmes. Although this work is aligned to national policy and strategies, awareness and support, however, is needed.

The National Youth Council of Ireland welcomes a holistic and comprehensive approach to sexual health and well-being. Sexual health needs to be recognised across a spectrum where young people are supported to develop their knowledge and competency regarding relationships and gender identity through the practical skills in respect of using contraception and accessing information from safe and reliable sources. The National Youth Council of Ireland and the health programme recommend the implementation of the B4u Decide programme throughout the youth work and school settings, ensuring young people are supported to delay the onset of early sex until they are ready. As work on consent is already happening across the youth work sector, it is important that this work is highlighted and recognised and that work on the area of consent is not delivered as a stand-alone piece but as part of a suite of training on sexual health and well-being to ensure consistency of messaging for young people with regard to consent. It is essential that the relevant sectors are equipped with accurate, consistent and tangible information. Consideration needs to be given to the role of gender, gender identity and the role of gendered messaging and how this informs sexual health and well-being. Young people need to be supported to develop their own competencies, especially with regard to self–esteem, body image and confidence. Evidence on the impact of pornography on young people should be collated and key learnings identified and formally shared to relevant sectors, as it is important to identify and understand why young people are using pornography. In the absence of safe and relevant online resources, young people need to be supported to access the information they need from reliable and trustworthy sources.

The establishment of a working group is essential to ensure an agreed approach and response to underage sex, social media and sexting, particularly since the implementation of the Children First legislation and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.