Ms Jane Donnelly:

I would like to respond to the ethos issue. All children have a right to objective sex education. Article 42.3.2°. of the Constitution requires that children receive "a certain minimum education" including moral, intellectual and social. Sexual education fits in under the social heading. The Constitution does not say anything about religious or Catholic sex education. One could say that the State is failing in its duty to provide objective sex education to most pupils because in most schools the sex education provided is Catholic.

Furthermore, the Catholic Church has issued guidelines on RSE. Most schools do not tell parents that the sex education provided to pupils is Catholic. Catholic sex education is being integrated into the State's RSE curriculum. The church in its guidelines states that because RSE is an integral part of both the religious education curriculum and the SPHE curriculum, schools are not required to ask parents to sign a permission slip to allow their child to attend lessons in the sensitive area of sex education. Minority, non-religious and Catholic parents who do not want their children to receive Catholic sex education are not being told that this is happening. They do not know that their children are getting Catholic sex education which is integrated into the State course.

There are two issues at play here. The first is the fact that children have a right to objective sex education and we believe that the State is failing in its duty to provide same. The second is the fact that parents do not know that they can opt out of Catholic sex education for their children, which is what is being taught in schools.