Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that. I particularly want to focus on the LGBT sector. If we allow schools to teach sex education based on a particular ethos or value, students from an LGBT background or community will effectively be silenced or whitewashed. It is just not right in this day and age, so it will have to be addressed. The Minister has undertaken a lot of work on homophobic bullying and I compliment him on that. Great strides have been made in that regard. However, I do not want to see all the work the Department has done to tackle homophobic bullying being undone by schools where LGBT issues are effectively whitewashed from sex education.

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