The Catholic Church in the UK is set to snub the flagship free schools policy of UK Education Secretary Michael Gove, saying that the admissions rules restricting the number of pupils from churchgoing families who can go to Church-run schools is “perverse”. Speaking yesterday, Greg Pope, deputy director of the Catholic Education Service effectively ruled...
Parents should be able to choose which schools their children go to, the Northern Ireland Education Minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, has said. He was responding to a report on the website, The Detail, which showed that half of Northern Ireland’s schoolchildren are being taught in schools where 95pc or more of the pupils are...
Justice Minister Alan Shatter (pictured) has said that Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act is unfair to gay and lesbian teachers and must be amended. Section 37 upholds the right of religious organisations not to employ those it believes would undermine their ethos. This right was upheld by the Supreme Court. In a speech...
Marital breakdown is highest amongst those with lower levels of education, according to a new report by the CSO. The report, entitled, What Do We Know, was based on figures from the 2011 Census and focused on rates of educational attainment. It found that the rate of marital breakdown was highest among those who...
Fine Gael has announced the names of the members of their delegation to the Government’s Constitutional Convention. The delegation is chaired by Laois/Offaly TD Charles Flanagan. The rest of the delegation are; James Bannon TD, Jerry Buttimer TD, Regina Doherty TD, Minister Frances Fitzgerald TD, Terence Flanagan TD, Tom Hayes TD, Derek Keating TD, Tony...
The non-biological parents of children being raised by same-sex couples will be allowed to form legal ties with those children under new proposals made by Justice Minister Alan Shatter (pictured). Speaking at a meeting of Fine Gael’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Group on Tuesday night, Mr Shatter said that the law needed to be...
Tonio Borg, a former Maltese Cabinet minister with pro-life and pro-marriage views, has been approved by the European Parliament as EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs. His nomination had been opposed by the Green and Liberal groupings within the European Parliament, as well as various secularist campaign groups who objected to his nomination on...
Two senior MPs have threatened the Church of England with a battle in Parliament and the prospect of legal challenges if it fails to approve women bishops on Tuesday. Two Labour MPs, former Cabinet minister Frank Field and Chris Bryant, a former Anglican priest warned that the Church of England’s position as the established...
Two women are challenging the outcome of the Children’s referendum in the High Court. The challenge is based on a ruling by the Supreme Court that the Government breached the Constitution by spending public money advancing only one side of the argument. The referendum was passed earlier this month by a majority of 58pc...
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Paris and across France on Saturday to protest government proposals to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption. Under the slogan “one dad and one mom for every child” opponents of the proposal called it a “major and dangerous upheaval”. Protests took place on the streets of Rennes, Nantes, Dijon,...
