Sixty two percent of births in Limerick city in the first quarter of this year were outside marriage, up from 53 percent in the same quarter last year, according to figures from the CSO. The figures show that Limerick city has the highest rate of births to unmarried parents in the country. There were 207...
A major new UK study shows that children raised by single mothers are twice as likely to misbehave by the age of seven as those born into traditional two-parent families. The research, carried out for the UK’s on-going Millennium Cohort Study, shows that some 12 per cent of children brought up by one parent displayed...
Disincentives to marriage and cohabitation should be removed from the social welfare system, according to new report the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection. The committee, in a report set to be published next week, says that the Lone Parent Allowance and “qualified adult” social welfare payment should be replaced by a single parental allowance payable...
Around 50,000 stay-at-home mothers in the UK have been forced back to work over the past year, official figures revealed yesterday. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, employment data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of stay-at-home mothers fell to its lowest level since August 1994. According to analysts,...
The Government has scrapped the wording agreed by an All Party Oireachtas committee for a children’s rights referendum. And Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday refused to commit to holding any referendum on the issue It is believed that the Government feared that wording would have had knock-on effects on other areas of law and mean more...
Labour leader Ed Miliband (pictured) has attacked the UK Government’s proposed changes to Child Benefit during Prime Minister’s Question Time. The new Leader of the Opposition pressed Prime Minister David Cameron to explain why it was fair for families where one parent stayed at home to lose out while those with two salaries who earned...
A new study which examined liver transplant patients, found that people who were actively “seeking God” had a better survival rate than those who did not hold religious beliefs, regardless of which faith they held. Some patients were up to three times more likely to survive by having a “strong religious connection”, even if they...
EU foreign policy needs to include religious freedom as a central plank, according to a leading Member of the European Parliament. Speaking at a conference organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and the Evangelical Church in Germany, Othmar Karas MEP said EU foreign policy...
Alternative family dispute resolution methods such as mediation should be placed at the top of the agenda for lawyers and the courts, according to newly appointed Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Liam McKechnie. Speaking at a Canadian-Irish judicial conference at the weekend attended by judges from Canada and the US as well as Ireland, Justice...
The Department of Social Protection has cut off payment of the Child Benefit to the equivalent of 8,500 children, the Irish Independent has revealed. According to a report in the paper, the Department has suspended the payment to 3,070 families, while payment to another 1,480 families has been stopped altogether — affecting a total of...
