Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I am so privileged to go out to schools and to be invited in to be a guest speaker in the programmes in some schools around active consent, gender equality etc. I remember working with the Donegal Rape Crisis Centre two years ago around active consent in schools. It told me it was underfunded and did not know if it would be able to roll it out the next year to transition year students.

Even listening to some of the speakers today, it is clear that we have come a long way from a little Catholic one-way country, even in the last ten or five years. I remember that because I was a member of the Traveller community, I did not have to do sex education in school. That is still the norm today in the education system for Travellers and women from other ethnic minority groups. How do we reach those young women? We have seen comments lately from men saying not to be educating their children around sex education. This is what they are saying. They want to take that away from our children. We have seen it with the libraries in Cork etc. How do we embed active consent in our education system and normalise it? How do we make it part of Ireland's culture? We are no longer that little traditional Catholic country any more. We are a multinational and multicultural country, or I think we are anyway.

In some communities, men are here and women are still there, unfortunately. That is not culture. That is inequality within communities. How does the programme reach young vulnerable women from minority groups that have those cultural barriers? I will probably get ate for talking about this, even at this committee. I know those barriers are still there. It is okay for Traveller men to speak about sex but it is not okay for Traveller women. How do we make sure that Muslim women, Traveller women, women from minority groups, young women and men from these groups are included and give them equal footing in the class, instead of saying that as part of their culture they do not need to know about sex education? Obviously, men and women and all that kind of stuff, no matter what culture you are from, has an impact. That is around the cultural aspect. How do we break down those barriers for people from minority groups, especially where women are treated less than men? What do we need going forward to make it acceptable in schools? Instead of getting the response of "Do not learn my child", how do we open up parents' minds and say "Look, your children are going to be having sex once they are past 15 or 16 and that is the reality"? How do we make it safe for young girls, young boys and non-binary people etc.?

I very much welcome the shift in the education system in the last five years, what is being done by rape crisis centres in general and at a local level in Donegal and Galway, for example. They are going above and beyond in breaking down those barriers, which are not easy to break down. It is not easy at all, particularly if it is only one parent who does not want their child educated making a big deal out of it. We care so much about our children. We have seen an awful lot lately around our children's future and blaming people from marginalised communities for attacking young women. I again thank the witnesses for coming in today. Any suggestions would be very welcome for how we can include women from minority groups in the active consent conversation. I am sorry I went on a bit.