The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants the Government to give women with small children a five per cent tax credit to encourage them back into the workforce. According to a report authorised by Ajal Chopra, the man leading the IMF delegation to Ireland, such a tax credit would be designed to help them pay for...
A judge who has given permission to the HSE to administer drugs to a baby at risk of HIV against the wishes of the mother said it was not a question of the State “acting as a superpower” or “nanny knows best.” The case shows once again that the law as it stands already allows...
Religious people far more charitable than their non-religious counterparts, according to a new study. The research, carried out by leading academic Dr Robert Putnam and David E. Campbell, lecturer in political science at the University of Notre Dame found that, while secular Americans tended to be somewhat more tolerant, religious people were much more likely...
UK Christians feel that they are “subjected to more stringent application of rules restricting religion in the public sphere than other groups,” the US State Department has noted. In its annual Report on International Religious Freedom, the Department noted that there was “ increasing public concern over the ability of Christians to express their faith...
A UK Employment Tribunal judge has found that there was ‘no discrimination’ in the case of a Christian pediatrician removed from an adoption panel after she had asked to be allowed to abstain from voting on cases involving applications to adopt from homosexuals. Judge John MacMillan dismissed the claim, saying the case “fails fairly and...
A group promoting the rights of unmarried fathers has called for the compulsory registration of fathers on birth certificates. Launching a new document on family law, the group, Families, Fathers and Friends, also called for all fathers to be made legal guardians of their children from birth. Lead counsellor for the group, Sam Butt, said...
European pro-family groups have warned that a new EU report under consideration by the European Parliament could pave the way for same-sex marriage being forced on Member States. The document, “Report on civil law, commercial law, family law and private international law aspects of the Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Program” is intended to make...
A Catholic National School has been been found guilty of discrimination and fined €12,000 by the Equality Tribunal for not hiring a Protestant teacher. However, the school said it didn’t employ her because she didn’t have a Certificate in Religious Education which would have qualified her to teach religion in the primary school. The case...
In its efforts to protect children, the State must also protect the integrity of the family unit, Ireland’s leading judge has said. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray in the foreword to the latest edition of Geoffrey Shannon’s Child Law, writes that “the State should proceed with caution in protecting the interests of children,...
The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) is writing to pressure Minister for Education Mary Coughlan into reneging on a promise made to provide time during the school year for separate specific religious instruction for children of different faiths in five experimental, State-run primary schools, the Irish Independent reports. The Department of Education has set up...
