A parent is to mount a constitutional challenge to the Department of Education's controversial transition year programme, Exploring Masculinities.
Mr Tom Callaghy, a businessman from Celbridge, Co Kildare, has instructed his solicitors to serve a plenary summons on the Department of Education within the next fortnight.
He claims the programme, which deals with the personal and social development of young men, contravenes Article 42 that the "primary and natural" educator of the child is the family. Mr Callaghy has a 14-year-old son and is opposed to him taking the programme, in place in hundreds of secondary schools.
Lawyers said they expected the case to explore new legal territory on the right of the State to educate children on certain subjects and the impact of this on parents' rights.
Exploring Masculinities has been the subject of heated debate among teachers, academics, men's and women's groups. According to the Department of Education, it is designed to "help boys to manage their feelings and communicate".
Ms Maureen Bohan, a senior inspector with the Department, recently said it aimed "to empower boys to feel comfortable with themselves and let go of aggression or any other feelings of inadequacy which arise when they measure themselves against this ideal male who doesn't exist".
Mr Callaghy claims the role of parents is "almost non-existent" in the programme and the few references to it are "derogatory". He also claims parents' groups were not consulted when the programme was being drawn up.
He says men are unfairly depicted as violent individuals and the programme's claim that masculinity is a "social construct" is not supported by research or proper evidence.