Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make just a few brief comments. I thank the Minister for agreeing both to include our report as part of the package to the NCCA, as part of its review, and to come back to us with the recommendations of the review group so we will have that opportunity, having put this level of work in. I also appreciate the comments he and other Members have made on the work of the committee. I acknowledge Deputy Funchion as a former member of our committee who was involved in this, as was Deputy Burton, and Deputy Catherine Martin is a current member of the committee. This was a cross-party report into which everybody put a lot of work. That is why it is a really good report and there is a lot in it to take on board.

Deputy Tóibín singled out one Deputy who spoke on the report, but it is not about that Deputy, nor about any of us: it is about our young people, our children and our students who need support, guidance and a positive environment in which they can learn about relationships and sexuality in a factual way. It is not and should not be about ethos. Deputy Tóibín is absolutely correct in saying parents should have the right to bring up their children in the ethos and the faith in which they choose to do so.

Nobody would interfere with that. However, this is not about ethos, it is about health, health education and equipping young people with the skills and confidence they need to navigate this world. It is about respect and dignity and equipping teachers in the schools as well.

I reiterate what the Minister said, that people can make submissions up until 25 October. It is important that we get as many as possible. The engagement we had was very valuable. I appreciate that parents can be nervous about this and that some of them have genuine fears. I met a number of them who contacted me about their fears. When recommendations such as these are made they can be seized on as a way of trying to enforce a more liberal view. I was accused of trying to promote promiscuity and sexual activity at an early age because I was Chairman of this committee, but nothing could be further from the truth. As I mentioned earlier, the Spotlight research work has shown quite the opposite. It is about equipping young people to make informed decisions on consent and contraception.

The Minister and other Members highlighted the need to be more vigilant. We all must be more vigilant about the exposure young people have now whereby they are gaining a great deal of misinformation about sex and relationships through smart telephones and social media. Indeed, there was a comment about one aspect that we had left out of our initial draft and when it was picked up we had much discussion about it. We had not used the word "pornography" in the initial draft. The draft was leaked to the press and one journalist questioned how realistic it was since we had not mentioned pornography in it. We had another discussion among ourselves and, to a certain extent, we were, perhaps, nervous about facing it. Then we decided we had to face up to the fact that young children are accessing pornography and we know from research that they are as young as 11 years old. It is shocking. In a way it was a wake up call that we had to do something about it. It is not something we want to think about or something we wish to see 11-year-old children accessing. We decided that the best way of dealing with it was to say it as it is and try to be clear and open that there can be very negative consequences to accessing pornography.

I was then contacted by people who did not like the use of the word "pornography" in the recommendations, but I was able to explain quite appropriately that the reason we included it is that we wanted to be realistic. There was no point in us spending five long sessions engaging with people who were very committed, sensitive and open with us about the issues and challenges and not recognising that and including it in our recommendations. The committee has learned a great deal as well.

I will leave the report with the Minister. I believe it is in capable hands. I fully endorse the change to the Education Act in one of our recommendations. We look forward to further engagement after the NCCA has completed its review. We hope it will refer back to the committee and that we will be able to comment further. I thank the Minister for this engagement and all the Members who contributed to it.

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