Extraordinary and astonishing were two of the adjectives that cropped up when Tánaiste Mary Harney raised the notion earlier this week that the morning-after pill and contraceptives should be made available to 11-year-olds.
Few will argue with the appropriateness of both words: it is indeed astonishing, Ms Harney's word, (but perhaps not altogether surprising) that some 11-year-olds are sexually active. And few will disagree either with Dr Niall Ó Cleirigh of the Irish College of General Practitioners who described as "very, very difficult" the idea of a child as young as 11 requiring such a remedy. Ms Harney is surely correct, however, when she said that society has to deal with reality.
These matters are not ones that lend themselves easily to comfortable consensus. The sexualisation of children is a fact of life familiar to most parents. Some are concerned and seek to shield their children from its effects, a task made extremely difficult by the advent of satellite television and aspects of the pop industry. Some parents seem to pander to the process, especially with regard to clothes they permit pre-teen girls wear, to the bewilderment and alarm of more cautious mothers and fathers. Underage sex remains illegal but some people who help define popular culture for young people - through teen magazines, pop videos and some TV soaps - seem ready to ignore this.
Mercifully, the number of sexually active 11-year-olds is likely to be very small. While no precise figures are available, the number of under 16-year-olds seeking abortions in Britain last year and giving addresses in the Republic of Ireland was 49. Being open about having an abortion remains taboo in this society, despite the fact that the number of Irish women having abortions in the UK annually remains at over 6,000. It is hard not to conclude from this that very many parents, presented with an 11-year-old pregnant daughter (whether through rape or consensual, albeit illegal, sexual activity), would not opt for their child to have an abortion in Britain.
But is Ms Harney correct to suggest that the longer term strategy to help avoid this sort of emergency is to make contraceptives available, with parental consent, to 11-year-olds? Huge issues are raised, as the Tánaiste acknowledged, adding that she wanted to hear from experts, counsellors and educators. Some sensible comments were made by Fionnuala Kilfeather of the National Parents Council. The issue should be approached, she said, "from a position of parental responsibility". Making contraceptives available to pre-teen children would be an explicit endorsement of illegality. But of perhaps more long-term significance, it would signal approval of activity being undertaken by people - children - who by definition lack the maturity to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Children understand boundaries and can emerge as more rounded adults if constrained by them. Parental responsibility sometimes means saying No, rather than facilitating inappropriate behaviour.