Higher education institutions receiving public funding will have to provide sex education classes to tackle the issue of consent, sexual harassment and sexual assault on campuses, the Government has said. Minister of State for higher education Mary Mitchell O’Connor said she is considering making the classes compulsory in all Irish colleges.

She was speaking at the launch of research that showed that more than two-thirds of students do not think 28 standard drinks makes a person too drunk to give sexual consent. It also found high levels of sexual hostility or crude gender harassment. Ms Mitchell O’Connor said she was very surprised and troubled by the results and added “it is time” to examine how workshops on sexual consent could be made compulsory in Irish universities and Institutes of Technology.

“I believe it is timely and appropriate to formulate a standard of institutional responsibility, to address sexual harassment and assault,” she said.