Dr. Patrick Sullivan:

We engage widely with international and national reports and research but we have not had an opportunity to look at the particular report to which Deputy Clarke referred since its recent publication. We will be looking at it. I thank the Deputy for highlighting the matter of the gender gap in education and whether we can achieve that in a shorter period than 22 years. It goes back to the systemic response. Curriculum and assessment are very important aspects of it across early childhood, primary and post-primary but it is also a matter of wider society, the attitudes and values of parents and communities, the support for teachers and school leaders and initial teacher education. Closing the gap in a shorter time goes from education to justice to other areas of society, as the Deputy well knows.

I completely understand the issue relating to the international campaigns against children getting information in this regard. Given Ireland's commitment to the rights of children and the conventions and international agreements we have signed up to, we are on good ground. However, it is not so long ago that someone from the Department of Education had to go on "The Late Late Show" to talk about RSE in our schools to get public buy-in when it was being introduced in the late 1990s. We have come a long way, but there is another road to travel here. It is about that attentive ear to communities, families and values across our society. As I mentioned earlier, it is also about leading the way through curriculum and assessment provision in this area and being grounded in the rights of the child and what they are entitled to in our country.