Departmental Policies
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Ken O'Flynn (II), Cork North-Central

I thank the Minister for her reply but, with respect, it did not answer the question I asked. I did not ask whether she is committed to equality. I asked for the mechanisms. When a policy or recommendation is made by the Department in the name of equality, what is the actual process for checking whether it takes the rights away from somebody else? In my question, I named women, children and girls. I do not have to look very far for an example of that. We can go back before the summer recess. I trust the Minister is rested and had time to enjoy the summer. In that time, I hope she finally took the opportunity to read the book What's the T? , which was recommended for 15-year-old girls by a State-funded body's Pride reading list. Last year, the Minister told the public that she was not familiar with it, yet the well-respected former Minister, Charlie Flanagan, said he had raised the issue with her and asked her to read it back in 2023. Her own office was emailed excerpts of the book in March of this year. The point is that if a sexually explicit book can be recommended to children in the name of inclusion and nobody in the Department can tell me who checked whether it was safe for those children, the mechanism I am asking about does not exist. If it did, it would be in the Oireachtas Library. Does the assessment exist? It is a "Yes" or "No". If so, could I have an example of that assessment?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17