The Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has said the morning-after pill and contraception should be made available to children as young as 11 in certain circumstances.
She also said she favoured a liberal regime in relation to the availability of contraception, in order to prevent crisis pregnancies among teenagers.
She stressed, however, that contraception should only be made available to under-16s in consultation with their parents.
There was a mixed reaction to the Tánaiste's comments last night.
Dr Niall Ó Cleirigh of the Irish College of General Practitioners said his colleagues had not come across cases involving 11-year-olds seeking the morning-after pill, and he would like to know more about the case mentioned by the Tánaiste.
"I haven't heard of any GP who has," he told RTÉ News last night. "I think it's quite an extraordinary age and quite an extraordinary issue to parachute into an area that is a very, very difficult area for everybody."
Speaking to journalists following the annual report of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency yesterday morning, Ms Harney said she was "open to having a liberal regime as far as the availability of contraception is concerned because above all else we want to avoid crisis pregnancies." She added: "We want to avoid young people finding themselves, young women as I understand it, as young as 11, finding themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation. That is very undesirable."
She said she had been informed by a member of the Irish Nurses' Organisation who counsels those with crisis pregnancies and who had dealt with sexually active girls as young as 11.
"Much and all as we may find that astonishing, and it is astonishing, I think we have to deal with the reality, and the consequences of that mean that we have to promote more widely through schools and youth clubs and areas where young people associate, the availability of contraception. "And we have to make sure that if the morning-after pill is required, then it is available to somebody in that age group because clearly they're under age.
"A doctor can't prescribe to somebody as young as 11 without parental approval and huge issues arise in relation to that."
She said that engaging in sexual activity with somebody under the age of 16 was statutory rape.
"If it's happening then we need to deal with the reality, and I'm open to hearing from experts and counsellors and the agency in relation to that matter and indeed educators."
Yesterday the Irish Medicines Board, which regulates the availability of drugs in the State, said the morning-after pill was not licensed for use by anybody under the age of 16.
However, a doctor can decide to prescribe an unlicensed product if he or she believes it to be in the best interests of a patient, on a case-by-case basis. Any prescriptions to under-16s have to be made with the consent of a parent or guardian, a spokeswoman said.
Dr Ó Cleirigh said the main issue regarding prescriptions of the morning-after pill to under-16s related to cases of teenage girls just under that age threshold. "I do think you have to take quite a pragmatic decision there, but again you must have parental consent in relation to a girl under the age of 16."
The National Parents Council last night said sexual activity among 11-year-olds was a "child protection issue" and sex education had to be taught in every school.
Hazel Nolan, president of the Union of Secondary Students of Ireland, said many students found the level of sex education they received in school was limited, especially in Catholic institutions. "In a lot of schools you are not allowed to show how to use a condom, and that's a basic necessity. Young people are going to have sex, and people are going to have to wake up and think about it . . . either we provide accurate information, or students will learn it from TV shows."