A primary school receptionist in the UK is taking legal action against her employers after they disciplined her for asking friends to pray about the school’s treatment of her daughter. Lawyers representing Jennie Cain have lodged papers with Exeter employment tribunal claiming that she has suffered religious discrimination, harassment and victimisation. The claim is brought...
Amendments to the EU Budget which would have explicitly prevented projects funded by the EU going towards coercive abortion and sex-selective abortion failed to secure enough votes to be approved yesterday. There were 316 votes against Amendment 733, which would have explicitly prevented funding of coercive abortion, with 305 MEPs voting for the amendment. In...
Swedish authorities take child from homeschooling parents
A senior Labour minister in the UK has signalled a major U-turn by the Government on the issue of marriage. In the run-up to this year’s general election, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has admitted that the party’s long-standing ambivalence towards marriage was a mistake. The party is set to...
Lone parent benefits may come to an end once a child reaches the age of 13 a new scheme being suggested by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin. One billion euro is paid out in lone parent allowances each year. In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms Hanafin said the Government’s...
Churches should be “lining up” lawyers to defend themselves against secular legal challenges under the Equality Bill, a Government equalities minister has admitted. Michael Foster MP, a minister in Harriet Harman’s Equalities Office, was asked whether the Bill would lead to legal clashes between churches and atheists. He said both sides “need to be lining...
Photographer loses appeal on same-sex "committment ceremony" decision
Minister of Education Batt O’Keeffe has defended the existence of religious schools, saying that schools with a Christian tradition had played “an outstanding part” in Irish education. Referring to calls to nationalise the school system, he said it was not within his remit to decide if religious organisations should be driven from schools. Speaking in...
One of Ireland’s leading parents’ groups, the National Parents’ Council, has criticised a proposal by the Law Reform Commission (LRC) for children aged as young as 14 to be allowed access to contraception without parental knowledge. The age of consent in Ireland for sex is 17. Both the Association of General Practitioners (GPA) and the...
