Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called for a national discussion on pornography as the minds of the young people are being “corrupted and tainted by an avalanche of this kind of material”, writes Elaine Loughlin and Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

Mr Kenny said that as children grow up with easy access to the internet, they can be exposed to a pornography that is “as ubiquitous as it is damaging”.

Mr Kenny said: “It’s always important that we should have a national conversation about what is important for our children — what is, and should be, a priority for our children when they’re growing up, and when they grow up.

“And more and more grow up being online. And from that point of view, what used to be termed the ‘lads’ magazines’ have grown to be replaced with a pornography that is as ubiquitous as it is damaging.”

It comes as Eoghan Murphy, the junior finance minister, said there is “potentially no harm” in legalising prostitution among consenting adults as there is “a need for it in society” in certain specific cases.

Mr Murphy said in the latest issue of Hot Press magazine that there are serious issues with trafficking and that “the abuse of women is disgusting”.

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.