Irish society needs a proper debate over the importance and nature of marriage before considering a referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage, the Catholic Bishops have said in their submission to the Constitutional Convention on the matter. The Convention is set to discuss same-sex marriage on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of...
Nearly half of all UK families have only one child, according to new official figures. The number of one-child families has increased by almost 700,000 in 15 years, and they are likely to be in the majority within a decade, the data suggests. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said larger families are under pressure...
The Government is set to recognise the altered birth certs of people who have had their genders ‘reassigned’ overseas, but they are not yet changing the birth certs of people who have had their gender reassigned in Ireland. In addition, it will allow that person to marry a person of the ‘opposite’ sex. In a...
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has been attacked for suggesting that childcare costs will have to be taken into account in insolvency arrangements if the outlay exceeds income and is preventing parents from making mortgage repayments. The National Council of Women of Ireland described his remarks as “extremely anti-women and anti-children”. They added that his comments...
The number of children and teenagers who died of unnatural causes while in the care of the HSE more than doubled last year. Figures supplied under the Freedom of Information Act show that 16 young people died in 2012, up from six in 2011, the Irish Examiner reports. Helen Buckley, the chairwoman of the National...
Health Minister James Reilly has said that the HSE is to review a website partly-funded by the state that gives young people information about group sex. The move comes amid reports that the site, SpunOut.ie, carries information which appears to encourage teenagers to participate in “threesomes”. However the website has insisted that it will retain...
Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Paris on Sunday to protest government plans to legalise same-sex marriage. Organisers suggested that up to 1.4 million had attended, while police suggested that there were at least 300,000 at the march. Over 800,000 demonstrators had flooded into the capital for an anti-gay marriage march in January. The...
David Cameron has claimed that he will stand against the “aggressive secularisation” of British society. The Prime Minister promised Christians that his Government “cares about faith” despite clashes with religious groups over same-sex marriage, the Daily Telegraph reports. At a pre-Easter reception in Downing Street, Mr Cameron said that the Coalition Government cared “about the...
Parents in the UK believe sex education should be taught in its “moral context” with an emphasis on marriage and the importance of the legal age of consent, according to a new Government report. Over half of respondents to an official consultation also said it was vital that sex and relationship classes promote self-respect and...
The Constitutional Convention received a late surge of submissions on the topic of same-sex marriage in the three days before the deadline expired. The Convention has said that over a thousand submissions were made in the final three days before Tuesday’s deadline. Many of these were from groups and individuals opposed to the idea of...
