An Oireachtas committee is set to recommend a referendum on the rights of the child. Mary O’Rourke, Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children said a suggested wording for the referendum from children’s charity Barnardos is being legally examined by advisors to the committee. At the launch of a report by...
The family is being blamed for the gap in income between men and women, in new paper published today. Research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) commissioned by the Equality Authority says the fact that women take time out to have children is the chief reason for the continuing pay gap. Based on...
A child in the US state of New Hampshire who has been homeschooled by her Christian mother has been ordered by a court to attend a state-run school so she can learn about other belief systems. The court conceded that the New Hampshire ten-year-old is bright, sociable and academically advanced for her age, but decided...
A key Church of Ireland committee has welcomed Cardinal Sean Brady’s warnings on the threat posed to marriage by the Government’s proposed Civil Partnership Bill. The Church of Ireland Gazette reported last week that the committee welcomed the emphasis placed on marriage and family values by Cardinal Brady in recent remarks he made about the...
Senator Rónán Mullen has welcomed new recommendations to create a statutory presumption that unmarried fathers obtain guardianship rights vis a vis their children. Commenting on the Law Reform Commission’s (LRC) proposals , published yesterday, Senator Mullen said that the move represented “a step in the right direction,” and suggested that the current legal status, in...
The long-awaited report by the Commission on Taxation has recommended that Child Benefit should be taxed. However, the Commission recognises that such a move will pose very real practical problems. Instead, it is now thought that Child Benefit payments will be cut in the next Budget. The report acknowledges that taxing the payment will have...
A controversial law which has been used to prosecute individuals deemed to have offended minorities, has been found to violate the right to free speech. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal last week ruled that Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act violates the right to free expression because it carries the threat of punitive...
The head of a leading UK children’s charity has said that more children should be taken aware from their parents at birth to prevent them being brought up in “completely broken” families. Martin Narey, the chief executive of the charity Barnardo’s, said that social workers try “too hard” to keep children with their biological parents...
Humans are ‘programmed’ to believe in God and the supernatural, scientific researchers claim. A study into the way children’s brains develop suggests that beliefs in the supernatural are present from birth. The findings of Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, challenge the claims of atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins’ assertion...
The number of people addicted to cocaine has risen sharply since 2002, according to a new report by the Health Research Board. The report was based on a study of drug addiction treatment trends from 2002 to 2007. The Health Research Board report claims there has been a 177 per cent increase in cocaine addiction...
