The Dáil has voted by to 76 to 53 to “note” the controversial majority opinion of an Oireachtas committee that assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legislated for.

The vote came on the same day as a similar proposal was rejected by the Welsh Parliament.

A number of prominent Government TDs opposed the motion including former minister Simon Coveney and current Ministers Peter Burke and Norma Foley, but Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, voted in favour.

The vote has no binding effect on either legislation or Government policy, but is seen as the Dail’s acceptance of the committee’s recommendations.

Commenting on the result, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said it would have been preferable if a majority of TDs had voted to reject the “radical and far-reaching report”.

In addition to reducing the value of human life and undermining anti-suicide campaigns, she said the introduction of euthanasia/assisted suicide in Ireland would undercut investment in palliative care and lead to certain vulnerable groups feeling growing pressure to opt for the practice.

“Significantly the push for euthanasia/ assisted suicide has been opposed by professional bodies such as the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants Association”.

Another Fianna Fáil TD has called on his party colleague, Minister Norma Foley, to act on revelations regarding the SPHE course for teachers in DCU, saying that what was being revealed was “abhorrent”, that parents were “aghast” and that what was being proposed for schools could “endanger children”.

Kilkenny TD, John McGuinness, said that it was clear that the DCU course for SPHE teachers – in which attendee, teacher Mary Creedon, said lessons featuring graphic and explicit content – was “not fit for purpose”.

His comments come as fellow Fianna Fáil TD, Junior Minister Seán Fleming, said in the past week that the DCU course should be removed and that the Minister had told him she was “not happy” with it. Other TDs, including, Independent Carol Nolan have also called for the Minister to act, saying that parents had serious concerns with what was being revealed.

The Welsh Parliament, including the country’s First Minister and Health Secretary, have voted against a motion calling for a new law to allow ‘assisted dying’ in Wales and England.

In total, 19 Senedd members voted in favour of the motion, with 26 against and nine abstentions. The vote was symbolic as the Senedd does not have the power to change the law on such issues.

The motion had proposed that adults suffering “intolerably” from an incurable physical condition should have the option of an assisted suicide, with “robust” safeguards in place.

One politician favouring the motion said his grandfather was threatened with a manslaughter charge for wanting to help his own wife die.

Opposing the motion, Plaid Cymru MS, Delyth Jewell, was close to tears as she said: “My fear with this motion, my terror is not so much with how it will begin but how it will end.”

She said safeguards in countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium had been gradually eroded.

“For many disabled people or people who are not close to their family, people who are worried, anxious and lonely it would leave them to feeling they have no choice but to end their life.”

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.