A Sinn Fein senator said the right of faith-based schools to decide their RSE/SPHE curricula in accordance with their own ethos leaves LGBT students ill-informed about how to have safe sex and perpetuates feelings of stigma and isolation. For as long as that is allowed continue, he said, LGBT youth are “in real trouble”.

Because schools are free to derogate from aspects of the RSE/SPHE curriculum in accordance with their own ethos, he said, “this means that many pupils across the State are not taught and informed how to have safe sex, the boundaries of consent, relevant health information on how to have healthy relationships because of their sexuality or gender identity.”

“This serves to cement the stigma and isolation that a young person feels during his or her formative years, when his or her sexuality or gender identity is not perceived as a norm, or moral as dictated to him or her by the ethos of a school,” he said.

Senator Warfield warned that, “as long as an ethos-based school can choose aspects of its curriculum to uphold the characteristic spirit of that school we are in real trouble.”