More than 1,000 people, mostly women, attended a sexual assault treatment unit in 2022. It is the first time the figure has gone above 1,000. It has increased by 20% in just a year. One fifth of the people attending those clinics were children. Reported sexual offences have increased by nearly 100% in the last ten years. The number of rapes has increased by more than 100% in the last ten years. CARI, an organisation which works with children, says there has been a 44% increase in the number of sexual assaults by children on children in just two years. Men and women who work with victims of sexual assault are calling for the Government to clarify its approach on how children will be taught about pornography under the new junior cycle. Parents are worried that children will be taught that pornography can be benign or ethical for children at a young age. Will the Taoiseach confirm that teachers will give clear ethical guidance to children that pornography consumed by children is dangerous, damaging and clearly linked to sexual violence?

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.