Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in thanking the Joint Committee on Education and Skills for the work it put into the report and for the thoughtfulness of the report which will be enormously helpful to many people who work in schools and to parents. When it comes to this area, none of us is necessarily particularly expert. We are all human beings with different experiences. Most of us would like to see happy, loving relationships for our young people, whatever their sexual orientation.

When most of us look back at how well we handled our own situations or, indeed, our own children, there is much food for thought in the report of how this is a constant learning experience, as new generations come along. Of course, with the influence of social media, much of the ground in this area has developed in a way that most of the Members could not have envisaged. When they were teenagers, even though we are talking about recent modern times, relationships were still often constructed in what by today's standards would seem an old-fashioned way.

In that context, as a lecturer over a long period of time in the now Technical University of Dublin, I want to say a word of praise for students' unions on all the work they have done down the decades to allow people space to explore, to learn and to get particularly vital information about different elements of their own personal life.

In that context, I recall Senator Ivana Bacik taking on the powers that be, I think it was in Trinity College, at a time when there was shock and horror at the notion that condoms could become available in student unions. In fact they were threatened with legal action. I think we have moved quite a long way, and the role that student unions and organisations of young people play in constantly informing people about their views and their experiences continues to be very important. Whatever arrangements the Department finally enters into, I do hope there is room for continuous consultation with voices of current experience, who can add to the understanding of the people framing and conducting the overall curriculum. As Minister for Social Protection, I was responsible for having the legislation introduced which allowed trans people to have, for instance, a birth certificate in their preferred or acquired gender. I recall how much I learned, not particularly to do with politics but as a person, from the young trans people and particularly from their parents, about the journeys they had undergone in terms of identifying their particular sexuality. I think Ireland has actually changed. In the discussions in both the Dáil and the Seanad, there was nothing but very strong support and understanding from Members on all sides to seek to develop our legislation and regulations in a way that would allow people to lead happy, fulfilled lives in terms of their own particular situation. I agree with the Minister that this is really borne out of a very strong sense of respect for other human beings. As the GAA often says, "give respect, get respect." In schools, which are particular communities, respect should underlie and drive the curriculum.

One of the areas that does need to be addressed is that of the dangers. I refer to the dangers associated with drugs, how things can go wrong, and good sexual health if it is not addressed and attended to. I refer also to the dangers relating to pornography. I think in some recent court cases, many of us have been very worried by the revelations about the availability of porn on social media and the fact that it can be accessed in very significant amounts by frighteningly young children or very young teenagers who are barely past being rather small children.

Another area is the issue of violence in relationships. I have long been involved with various refuge centres in my own area and with the national network of refuges. Violence is no respecter or class, status or wealth. For young people in school, if they are seeing that within their own family or if later on in life they find themselves unfortunately in a relationship where there is sexual violence, which is all about control rather than sex or love, it is important that they have a sense that they have the power to deal with this and address it. While people learn all the positives about loving relationships, they should also be told about when things can go wrong and what they may need to do to protect themselves.

In the context of the report having been published, I was talking to a couple of people about what they would like to see. They said that rather than a lecture-style class with the students sitting there and being talked down to by the top table in the classroom by the teacher, they would really like to see a workshop-based approach which would involve students and permit them to have some discussion around their feelings. I know particularly in secondary schools that we are broadly talking about 50-minute periods. It requires a lot of thought. As we all know, people can be quite tense when this subject is being taught and the class can descend into giggles, sneering and finger-pointing at what they may think about other people in the group. In terms of teacher training, a lot of thought should be put into how to take the potentially toxic elements out of a class and make it a shared experience in which people feel able to discuss their feelings or get information. Not every child in a class is as informed as some of the smart people who always seem to know everything. For teachers, that is a massive problem. How do they help the people who may not have had discussions at home with their parents, may not have been able to read but are really avid to try to get information? It is a tough job to be able to do all of that. Teacher training is important in this. As the Minister was suggesting, using the education centres to look at the difficulties and the positives of being involved in teaching the subject may be helpful.

It was also mentioned to me that while a lot of lessons may talk about how one gets into a loving relationship, unfortunately as everybody knows who has ever been a teenager, relationships also involve break-ups. One of the suggestions was to discuss how to deal with a break-up so it does not destabilise the person entirely, that they take some good experience out of it, learn from it and move on. It is quite an important point to learn that he or she is not the only person who has ever been affected by a relationship break-up.

I am very glad to see the report before the House. There are some very good recommendations in it, which I hope as far as possible the Minister will implement.

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