A Tipperary teacher who has taught SPHE over a period of 16 years says she is one of several teachers who have resigned or are considering resigning from their roles because they are completely appalled, sickened and deeply concerned at the new SPHE curriculum, which they say has the potential to be very harmful to young school students. I am not against sex education in secondary schools but the explicit content in this textbook and associated material has crossed a line. The Department of Education has failed to conduct a proper risk or impact assessment on the potential harm this material could cause to young students. I call for the Minister for Education to immediately withdraw this textbook from the teacher training. What is going on in the Department of Education? This is not the first time that we have seen things like this. Who is driving this agenda? This has to be withdrawn immediately. I call on the Minister, Deputy Foley, to act immediately and, if not, the Tánaiste should act on it.

I did not quite get the overall import of what the Deputy was saying. My understanding is that relates to material for adults. Is it teacher training material for SPHE or RSE?

Yes. To be given to students.

I will refer the matter to the Minister and ask her to come back to the Deputy on it.