Sinn Féin spokesperson on Education, Sorca Clarke TD, said that she was appalled by the depiction of a ‘traditional Irish family’ in an SPHE schoolbook and called for the content to be removed immediately.
  
Teachta Clarke said:
 
“The portrayal of a ‘traditional Irish family’ in the SPHE school book is bizarre at best.
 
“Caricatures of Irish families have been depicted in racist tropes for generations. It is incredible that the creators of this content would replicate and echo these stereotypes. We need to think again about how we inclusively represent an Irish family in the 21st Century.
  
“Schools should be teaching our children and young people how to think critically around inclusion, exclusion, conscious and subconscious bias in an age-appropriate way, which these depictions do not achieve.
 
“The content designers and the NCCA must explain how it was decided that this content was appropriate, the content must be removed from the SPHE book and replaced with content that is respectful and appropriate.”