Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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287. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills where ultimate responsibility lies for the drafting, preparation, settling and publication of a social, personal and health education curriculum handbook for schools featuring a classroom exercise depicting Irish families (details supplied); and the unit in her Department that had the final say in reaching agreement on and signing off on such controversial content. [36187/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The curriculum, as approved by me as Minister for Education, at both primary and post primary level, is considered to be for all learners regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic background, gender or orientation. It is the aim of my Department that every child has access to equitable education and that each learner feels safe and happy in the school environment, at every stage.

The Curriculum specification and prescribed material for any subject are determined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) www.ncca.ie. It should be noted that the material referenced by the Deputy was not contained within the curriculum or other material published by the Department. It is the responsibility of each individual school to select the resources (other than prescribed material) that it will use to support its implementation of the curriculum. Any concerns regarding material published in textbooks should be raised with the publisher themselves. I understand that the publisher in this case has withdrawn the text in question.

Following a recommendation from the NCCA Report on the Review of RSE in 2019, a portal site was developed by the NCCA where teachers can access SPHE/RSE teaching and learning resources. These online toolkits are published by the NCCA at curriculumonline.ie to provide supports for teachers in preparing for and teaching SPHE/RSE, and have been carefully selected to support planning for quality teaching and learning in SPHE linked to the current curriculum.