Dr. Pádraig MacNeela:

It is really important that strong language be used to have a strong impact and statement of purpose when one comes from a position where historically there has been little or no activity. That is why I think deliberately using a word such as "mandatory" is a strong way to put it out to colleges that they should work out what it means for them.

Let me outline what we have seen in our travels throughout the education system. We now work with up to ten institutions from Belfast to Cork and from Galway to Dublin. We have seen a range of settings into which this work will slot immediately. Sometimes it is students' union driven, sometimes it is student service driven and sometimes there is a balance. It is a unique configuration and we have learned from these lessons.

Institute of Technology Tralee has been mentioned. Ms Jackie Ruttledge works in its health promotion department. She has been inspirational and helped to show us how one can integrate students safely within the programme of education one is trying to convey.

I want to mention a couple of points by way of clarification. We offer a workshop. We use the word "workshop" deliberately because it implies that one is active and involved in a range of different activities. One is out of one's chair performing individual tasks. One works with a small group of people with whom one exchange views. One also engages in whole group tasks.

Where we bring introduce information from outside, we draw on data we have gleaned from over 3,000 students who responded to our surveys and scenarios we presented to them via online formats. It does not matter what the view within the room is because we offer ambiguous scenarios and ask whether a smile is enough and the people concerned had too much to drink. We can also give people information from their peers outside the room, which is really important. For example, we present a same-sex scenario where the question is if the people concerned should have talked more because there was a misunderstanding and some non-consenting behaviour. What we can show is that 90% of one's peers outside the room who have completed our online survey say it is okay to ask and that one can clarify. Then we work with the people in the room and ask them what they would say. We get their words, to which we can come back repeatedly during the course of a workshop. All of it is really important in terms of inclusivity. Another scenario we present is where a man has been subject to harassment by a woman. It is another really important model that has to be spoken about.

We discuss relationship issues, including, for example, the issue of consent in long-standing relationships versus prototype hook-up scenarios. All of these things are extremely important in terms of the content of a workshop, what makes it interactive and why we get a high score of four out of five from students, including those in Trinity College Dublin in 2016. It is encouraging that that result was not obtained by specialised persons who delivered workshops. Instead, we have trained people who go on to get really positive results from the students with whom they work. It is important to note that our workshops are effective.

I would like to interest members in a much bigger vision. We can get bogged down in discussing issues surrounding programmes being mandatory and so forth, but we want to see the big picture. Ideally, as several people said, it would not simply be a workshop, an island of civility, with someone then walking out and encountering whatever else is going on. We need to be targeting people via new methods such as what we are doing with short consent videos. In that case, one gets to choose the decision points and decide whether the people will back out of the scenario or go ahead and so forth. Also, there is the theatre performance. It was one of the only ways we could reach the thousands of students who had been mentioned in the vital couple weeks of orientation. We have seen a consent programme deployed in different settings. The University of Limerick and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, have scheduled it in classes. The National College of Art and Design has scheduled it in class hours. In Galway as that opportunity is not available to us, we worked it into a student accommodation model similar to what is done at Trinity College Dublin. As I said, we have to consider the bigger picture. It should not just be an one-hour experience but a repeated message based on good, solid research evidence that is updated regularly and seen throughout the year.

At second level we now have, possibly, the only opportunity we will ever have to have the different levels of education speaking to each other. People are asking what should be done in colleges and schools. It is the perfect opportunity to have common language and a stepped or graded approach to how we will talk about consent at second and third level. Of course, it will be based on a common message and common features of interaction and dialogue but which will be tailored to the needs of the individual user that one has at school where one is curious about the biological aspects of sexual health and in colleges where people are much more interested in issues of equality and diversity. In turn, we can tap into ongoing issues that we totally need to discuss. I refer to the debates about alcohol, relationships, communication and mental health. It is what makes consent such an interesting issue that sheds light on a number of aspects of the development of young adults.

We need to approach the matter in a very positive way. In a school environment where 75% of students say they have not received satisfactory sex education, the idea of a consent workshop is threatening on several levels when one enters third level education.

Women who experience sexual harassment may see a consent workshop as a threatening experience, while men walking into a consent workshop with no background knowledge of what it involves may also see it as threatening and wonder whether they will be put on the spot or asked questions. We need to embrace it as a positive experience and unique opportunity. The committee has a unique chance to speak across the different levels of education and we are very interested in helping it to do so.