Departmental Policies
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
============================================================

Ken O'Flynn (II), Cork North-Central

The Minister did not answer my question on whether she read the book or not, but she made the statement, in respect of those types of book, that her Department has nothing to do with it. This may come as a surprise to her, but she is the Minister for children and equality. These are recommended books describing sexual acts to 15-year-old children. If the buck does not stop with her, as the Minister, where does it stop? Where is the mechanism that protects those children? That is what I am asking about today.
The Minister's reply was very disappointing. Will she come clean to the House and tell us whether she has read the book or the excerpts? Will she tell us who was telling the truth and who was not telling the truth? Was it her or the former Minister, Charlie Flanagan? What is the story? If the buck does not stop with her, who does it stop with? This is about the protection of children. When explicit books are being recommended to children and placed on a reading list for children, I would think the Minister for children is surely responsible.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

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