Kerry parents’ group oppose condom law change

June 1991

A GROUP of Kerry parents has strongly condemned moves by the Government to increase the availability of condoms.

The move, they feel, will put unnecessary pressure on young people.

Secretary of the Listowel branch of the Catholic Secondary School Parents Association, Sarah Buckley, this week urged that the law remain unchanged.

“Pressure is put on young girls to go out with boys and if condoms are more readily available, there will be an increased pressure on them to use them.” she said.

The CSPA also objects to the lowering of the age at which young people can buy condoms.

“I think there is enough pressure on young people with exams and school without adding this one.”

The organisation stresses that parents should be the primary educators of their children.

“The unwarranted inferference by the Government in providing for the widespread distribution and sale of condoms to 17 year olds is deplored by concerned parents,” Mrs. Buckley said.

She also condemned a Law Reform Commission recommendation to establish the age of consent among homosexuals at 17.

“People can’t help the way they were horn, but a recommendation like this is putting undue pressure on people who are at a very vulnerable age,” she added.

The group, in condemning the Government’s contraception policy, said that the promotion of sexual activity among teenagers is ruinous to their young lives.

“We, the parents of Catholic Secondary Schools’Parents Association invite all groups, who want to keep promiscuity out of our homes and schools, to demand that we get the laws which support our moral standards and not the laws which some vendors of condoms desire or require,” Mrs Bucklev concluded.