The Government is "fumbling around" with its sex education policy and focusing on contraception rather than education, Fine Gael has claimed.
Health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said sex education policy "is fumbling around in the same way that teenagers fumble around when engaged in sexual activity".
He warned: "We will have moved in 15 years from having to provide sex education in secondary schools to providing it in primary schools if we do not tackle the issue."
But Minister of State for Health Seán Power said the Government was aware of the problem and had worked with the Department of Education to support schools in the introduction of social, personal and health education.
"The relationships and sexuality education is a vital part of the curriculum and is a key priority of our work with schools," he said.
At Question Time the Wexford GP said that 13- or 14-year-olds were regularly engaged in sexual activity.
He claimed that "in many cases they have no clue as to what is happening or what they are doing. That is because there is no proper sex education."
But Mr Power countered: "Young people are more educated today than they have ever been. They are probably prepared to take more risks today than we were."
Dr Twomey responded: "Teenagers may know what they are doing, but they do not know how it works."
The issue was raised by Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus, who said the Minister should be "ashamed" that the budget for promoting safe sex to young people had decreased by 17 per cent and teenage pregnancy rates were increasing.
