Madam, - I note with alarm the report in your edition of November 27th which makes it clear that the chief executive of the Equality Authority, Mr Niall Crowley plans to issue a booklet to schools before Christmas which aims to have 12- and 13-year-old schoolchildren discussing whether they might be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
As a parent of this age group, and having a constitutional right to be involved in matters involving the education and moral values imparted to my children, I would like to ask why there has been no consultation with parents on this issue. Is this Department of Education policy? Alternatively has the Equality Authority become a new and infallible prescriber of moral values for schoolchildren?
Given that the legal age of consent is 17, whose interests are being served by having 12- and 13-year-old children questioning their sexual identity? - Yours, etc.,
SEAMUS O'CALLAGHAN, Bullock Park, Carlow.