A sexual health awareness pack including a condom is to be given to more than 50,000 third-level students by the Union of Students in Ireland. The aim of the pack is to promote safer sex. It includes an information leaflet telling students how to avoid sexually transmitted infections. The USI said it would distribute the sealed packs during freshers' week and later this autumn.
The leaflet tells students "the only guaranteed method of avoiding infection is to abstain from sex". But if they are sexually active, they should use appropriate protection. The Catholic Irish Bishops' Conference declined to comment on the campaign, but reiterated its teaching on contraception.
Canon John McCullagh, education spokesman for the Church of Ireland, said his church would rather place the information "in the broader context of relationships and the family". However, he said the USI campaign could be seen as a "practical response" to the rise in sexually transmitted diseases and "careless behaviour".
The USI said many people would support the campaign because it was responsible, and students often needed information on sexual health but did not know where to get it.
Mr Declan McKeown, a director of public health with the Western Health Board, described the leaflet as excellent and said the language was factual and direct.
"Without being unduly graphic, the language of the leaflet does not use euphemisms or `baby talk', and the reader is left in no doubt as to which are safe sex practices and which are not."