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.

Fianna Fáil TDs will have a free vote on whether to support the recommendations of an Oireachtas Committee to legalise ‘assisted dying’.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said “it will be a vote of conscience for every individual of the Fianna Fáil party”.

He told People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny that “within the Fianna Fáil party we’ve had a view for close to a decade now that issues to do with life, are an issue of conscience and that will remain the position in respect of this”.

But he said: “I myself don’t agree with this legislation. I have really serious reservations about it.”

Mr Kenny himself has called for all Government parties to allow a free vote on the issue.

The Final Report of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying, published in March, was debated in the Dáil last Thursday afternoon and will be voted on Wednesday of this week.

It is possible the report could be accepted by the Dáil, but it still leaves it for the next Government to take action, Mr Kenny said.

The Catholic Primate of All Ireland has said he is “alarmed” by the ongoing debates around school SPHE textbooks and training which include controversial lessons around gender ideology and sexuality, adding the Church has not approved the use of these resources.

Speaking exclusively to The Irish Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin has said that no SPHE (Social Personal and Health Education) or RSE (Relationships and Sexuality Education) resources “should be in any school without consultation with parents”.

The prelate warned that “many of our children are struggling with the issues of today, like gender, being bombarded with stuff online, and a lot of our children need to be able to talk about that and our teachers need to be equipped to be able to talk with them. But there’s a big difference between that and the sort of ideological colonisation that seems to be happening among some people, but not very many”.

The archbishop, who is a former teacher and principal, said he believes that Catholic teachers “instinctively know that this stuff is not appropriate” adding that teachers are “simply there to support parents and I do feel that parents are critical to this”.

Students of the Nottingham University Catholic Society have expressed their shock that the University placed a trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for containing “expressions of Christian faith”.

“This sends a deeply concerning message to all students that Christian beliefs – which are central not only to many university students, but also to the intellectual and cultural foundations of English history – are somehow offensive or harmful to others”, they said in a statement.

“To single out Christian perspectives this way is to dismiss the vital role that Christianity has played in shaping this country’s literature, philosophy and society.

“To reduce these themes to something that requires a trigger warning marginalises the beliefs of many students – and creates an environment of division, rather than of dialogue”.

They added: “The University of Nottingham should allow for students to engage with various worldviews and grapple with them with respect and thoughtfulness. The implications that Christian values are uniquely problematic is a severe form of discrimination that has no place in academia.”

The pro-euthanasia recommendations contained in the Oireachtas report on Assisted Dying were met with vocal opposition from some TDs in the Dáil yesterday.

In a nearly empty chamber, most of the TDs who spoke were opposed to any relaxation of the prohibition against killing others.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said that as a country we should focus on “assisted living” instead of “assisted dying”.

Independent TD for Laois-Offaly, Deputy Carol Nolan, said the recommendations “represent the crossing of an ethical and legislative Rubicon that is almost too terrifying to contemplate.”

Galway West Fianna Fáil TD, Éamon Ó Cuív, told the Dáil that once the door is opened to euthanasia there’s no way of limiting access—it inevitably gets widened more and more.

Westmeath Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy, who was a member of the Joint Committee, said the experts who presented evidence there left him with “a huge concern” at what would happen if euthanasia was introduced.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD from Kildare Bernard Durkan told the Dáil reiterated his consistent opposition to such legislation and expressed grave concern at the way pro-euthanasia/assisted suicide laws in other countries had developed.

Prolific levels of “overt” violence depicted in “mainstream” pornography is fuelling instances of physical and sexual aggression towards women and girls, a newly published Irish report has suggested.

The report, titled ‘Facing Reality: Addressing the Role of Pornography in the Pandemic of Violence against Women and Girls’, posits that the majority of freely available pornography on the internet “constitutes sexual violence”, and that, in turn, this violence is shaping the attitudes and behaviours of those who consume pornography.

The report was prepared by the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy (SERP) Institute, commissioned by Women’s Aid and funded by Community Foundation Ireland.

Depictions of violence in pornography “actively distort and break the boundary between ‘sex’ and ‘sexual violence’”, the report says, and impact negatively on adults and young people – leading directly to sexual violence, unhealthy relationships, hostile misogyny and a compounding of gender inequality.

“There is a significant body of research evidence demonstrating the relationship between consumption of pornography, in particular regular consumption, and the perpetration of violence against women and girls,” the report notes.

So-called ‘safe access zones’ within 100 metres of facilities providing abortions came into effect Thursday with those infringing facing substantial fines or imprisonment for up to six months .

It will mean that any kind of pro-life presence, including silent prayer vigils, that might influence a person’s decision to go for an abortion would fall afoul of the law.

People will get a Garda warning as a first-off to the commission of an offence and this means those who are unaware of the law and at risk of offending are informed that they are engaged in prohibited conduct and that continuation of this conduct will amount to an offence.

Penalties arising for offences can include fines or jailed for up to six months.

Penalties have been provided on an escalating basis where harsher penalties may apply for repeat offences, according to the legislation.

The NCCA has removed a section from its document advising SPHE teachers that students were not to share what they discussed in class with anyone. Defenders of the requirement say it gives students a ‘safe space’ in which to discuss issues. Critics say it stops parents knowing what their children are being taught.

While the NCCA responded to a public backlash, the Health & Wellbeing SPHE curriculum textbook for Junior Cycle pupils, however, continues to say “What is shared in class stays in class” and carries a requirement for students to sign a ‘Contract’.

An advocacy group, Lawyers For Justice Ireland, say that such impositions on pupils in the classroom “flies in the face of child safeguarding principles of openness and transparency”.

“A guiding principle in Tusla’s ‘National Standards For The Protection And Welfare Of Children’ is that ‘safe and effective services are open, transparent and accountable’”, they say.

They added: “We need an immediate review and cessation of the Junior Cycle SPHE curriculum”.

Italy’s Senate voted 84-58 to extend a ban on surrogacy to apply worldwide.

While surrogacy was prohibited in Italy twenty years ago, many Italians did an end run around the law by engaging in surrogates in commercially lucrative contracts in places like California, USA, or places where standards are more lax such as Belarus and India. Ireland now has one of the most permissive surrogacy laws in the world.

Such ‘surrogacy tourism’ by affluent Europeans has recently been banned in a number of Asian countries, but this is the first time a European Nation would criminalise its own citizens for hiring surrogate mothers abroad.

Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, commented that it was a “common sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children”, adding that “human life has no price and is not a commodity to be exchanged”.

Eugenia Roccella, Italy’s Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family, said that “people are not objects, children cannot be bought and parts of the human body cannot be sold or rented”. She continued, “this simple truth, which is already enshrined in our legal system, where the aberrant practice of surrogacy is a criminal offence, can no longer be circumvented”.

A former serviceman who prayed silently for his unborn son outside an abortion clinic has been convicted of breaching a so-called “safe zone” around the centre.

Adam Smith-Connor had his head bowed and hands clasped as he prayed for his son Jacob, whom he said died from abortion 22 years ago, outside the centre in Bournemouth, Dorset, on November 24, 2022.

The exclusion zone around the clinic was introduced in October 2022 and banned activity including protests, gatherings and vigils against abortion.

Smith-Connor denied the offence of failing to comply with the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) but was found guilty by District Judge Orla Austin who said on Wednesday that what he did was “deliberate”.

The 51-year-old was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 in court costs and victim surcharge.