School Curriculum
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Paul Lawless (AON), Mayo

Is the Minister aware of the controversy surrounding the What's the T? book by Juno Dawson? Is she aware that the book was promoted by Children's Books Ireland? That is very important.
The idea that the Minister would say she is basically not responsible is, I believe, questionable. She is the Minister for education; the buck stops with her. For her to say she is not responsible is unacceptable, in my view. The Minister has such an enormous responsibility for the children of this country and if it is the case that there is inappropriate material being promoted to children, she actually is responsible and it is her job, I believe, to make sure that never happens again and that there are robust processes in place to make sure no child will be subjected to sexually explicit, age-inappropriate material in our schools and libraries and promoted by Children's Books Ireland and RTÉ.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16