Junior foreign affairs minister Seán Fleming is standing over criticism of a DCU sexual health course for secondary school teachers and said Education Minister Norma Foley told him she was “not happy” with the content of the course.

The two Fianna Fáil TDs spoke after an SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon, gave a video interview to the Natural Women’s Council about “inappropriate” course content for teachers delivering the new junior cycle SPHE programme. The video has been viewed more than 420,000 times on YouTube.

In an email to a member of the public last week, Mr Fleming said he had seen Ms Creedon’s interview and was “totally appalled” by some of the material on the training course.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Mr Fleming said Ms Foley had told him that “she was not happy with it either”, but she would not be instructing DCU what should be on its course.