Ireland’s welfare system may encourage lone parenthood because it penalises single people who marry or cohabit, a new study has suggested. The study, published yesterday by the Economic and Social Research Institute, found that Ireland has an unusually high level of never-married and previously married single parent families by comparision with other countries. The report...
There is huge support for cohabitation before marriage, a new study based on a survey of 20 to 49 year olds has revealed. The study found that 84 per cent believed it was better to cohabit with someone before marriage and more than two-thirds believed having a child with someone was more of a commitment...
Prescriptions for the morning-after pill have trebled in just three years in Scotland after pharmacists began giving the drug out to girls as young as 13. New figures show more than 2,300 morning-after pills (MAPs), which can cause an early stage abortion, were handed out in Scotland every week last year. Norman Wells, Director of...
Christians have become the most persecuted followers of any religion in the world today, an inter-religious meeting in Moscow has heard. But the U.S. government appears to be scaling back its work to safeguard this crucial human right. The International Conference on the Freedom of Religion and Discrimination against Christians, which took place earlier this...
The number of couples divorcing in the UK has risen for the first time in almost a decade, with some experts blaming the recent recession for the rise. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 119,589 divorces in England and Wales during 2010, an increase of 5 per cent on the previous...
Draft proposals made earlier this month by the advisory group of the Forum on primary school patronage established by Ruairi Quinn will have “a devastating effect on the Catholic identity of primary schools”, a lecturer at one of Ireland’s most prominent teacher training colleges has warned. Rik Van Nieuwenhove, a theology lecturer in Mary Immaculate...
Religious people in a secular Britain must be allowed to contribute to contemporary debates but should not be given special treatment, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has said. Archbishop Vincent Nichols (pictured) declared that faith groups must be free to “speak from their traditions”, and that their involvement in national...
Every pupil at in the UK Government’s new “free schools” and academies will be taught about the importance of marriage. Free schools are a new initiative of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. They are funded by the taxpayer, non-selective and free to attend but not controlled by local authorities. According to a report in The...
An English couple who paid Indian women to have their babies can keep them and bring them up as their own ruled one of Britain’s top judges, Sir Nicholas Wall yesterday. Sir Nicholas, President of the Family Division said £3,000 paid to the two Indian surrogates, did not go beyond “reasonable expenses”. The case is...
The 2012 Budget, announced yesterday, is the first since the introduction of tax individualisation in 2000 not to further widen the tax gap between one-income married couples and double-income married couples. The Budget, which introduced cuts in a number of areas, did not change income tax rates at all, meaning that the position of single...
