Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution sat, there was a lot of discussion on the highlight issues but the ancillary recommendations were fundamental. In order to prevent unwanted pregnancies, there is a huge role for sex education. I said at the time that we needed to drag sex education into the 21st century and this is a very serious effort to do that. The social, personal and health education, SPHE, curriculum was published in 1999 but Ireland has moved on at a rapid rate since then. I have spoken to the Minister about this on a number occasions and I am pleased that the task of updating how we teach sex education is in his hands. As colleagues said, it is important to involve parents in the process insofar as it is possible, in order to make it as holistic an experience for children as it can be. There should be no taboo about sex and it should be a normal part of life. Some time ago, there would not have been any discussion on this subject in either the Dáil or the Seanad so the fact that we are speaking about updating how we impart knowledge to youngsters in this area is very positive.