Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The level of sexual violence in our society is truly shocking. The amount of violence against children and sexual violence against children is even more shocking. Some of the court reports in recent weeks are hard to read, quite frankly. It is almost impossible to listen to reports that people could commit such crimes against children. Sometimes it is their own parents or their parents organised it. It really is shocking and almost unbearable to try to fathom why these things happen. I think it is increasing. I would like to believe that the reason we are seeing more prosecutions and more attendances at clinics is because more people are reporting it and more people are coming forward, but I am afraid that is probably not the case. It is becoming more prevalent in our society and we need to do everything we can to protect people, particularly children, from sexual violence.

I am not a teacher or an educationalist. I do not know what the right or wrong way is to educate children about pornography. Children need to be prepared for life and it is better that they are prepared for the things that they will encounter because they will. I definitely do not think that any curriculum should somehow suggest that it is benign because, of course, it is not.

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