Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I call on the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to resign in light of the SPHE training administered by Dublin City University. The Minister's interview on Newstalk last week showed a shocking level of negligence from the media in doing its job of probing the story. The presenter, Kieran Cuddihy, flippantly dismissed it as a non-story in response to the Minister's defence of the training as a seminar that was for adults by adults. Rather than discredit the messenger, he decided that the Minister was right and that the whistleblower was giving misleading information. The real lie is the cover-up by both the Minister and the media. The whistleblower on the course discussed how some content is already administered in classrooms in the UK. The WISER programme, a similarly obscene and graphic SPHE sex education course, received complaints from parents in a Galway school some time ago. For the record, the entire course was recorded. I can only discuss a part of that course today.

The Minister should be sacked immediately. This is grooming in its purest form. If they tell people that children are sexually innocent, they are effectively grooming. Children can never consent, and these are children as young as 12 being exposed to obscene content in the classroom. To those who would retort that children are looking at it online anyway, this is a so-called safe environment to receive information. I need only point to Senator Mullen's Bill to ban online pornography for minors. It cannot become law fast enough. It is a real solution that ensures children are shielded from sexual content. The Minister has spent €9 million on child protection by deactivating smartphones in schools when children's mental health services are on their knees. A better way to use this money would have been to invest in counselling services in the schools, where they are sorely needed. I call on the Minister to resign. She has presided over and defended this content. It is simply not good enough. Children deserve better.