The Government is to take up a private members’ Bill sponsored by Labour Senators and TDs aimed at curtailing the freedom of religious institutions to hire staff who will respect their ethos. The bill, which was debated in the Seanad yesterday, proposes to amend Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act. Section 37 permits institutions...
A pioneer of the same-sex marriage movement has admitted that multi-partner marriage is the next logical step in the evolution of the institution of marriage. Boris Dittrich, a former Dutch MP sometimes called the father of the global campaign to legalise same-sex marriage, told a French online magazine, Yagg, that there was now a movement...
The children of religious couples are more likely to abandon religion if their parents divorce, but it doesn’t have as big an effect as previously thought, a new US study suggests. The study, published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, found that children who had two religious parents who divorced are...
Only ten percent of primary school teachers who took part in a survey would prefer not to teach religion while 49pc say they teach religion willingly. However, only 363 teachers out of almost a thousand asked took part in the mail survey organised by the INTO. In addition to the 49pc of respondents who say...
The Finnish Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee has rejected a Bill to introduce ‘gender-neutral’ marriage. The committee voted 9-8 against the Bill, which means it will now not be brought before the full Parliament, according to Finnish news website yle.fi. The Bill was proposed by Alexander Stubb, from the National Coalition Party which is part of...
Childhood is effectively over by the age of 12 for many of today’s young people because of a “toxic” mix of marketing, the internet and pressure to become interested in sex before they are ready, a survey of parents in the UK has found. One in 10 parents polled said their son or daughter’s...
A complaint has been lodged with Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe over Sweden’s failure to respect freedom of conscience. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution in favour of conscientious objection in 2010 which has been sharply criticized by Sweden. Conscience rights for nurses and doctors...
The Government may back a Bill sponsored by a group of Labour Senators and banckbench TDs which will deny religious institutions the right not to hire people who could undermine their ethos and to take “reasonable” action against those who do. According to the Irish Examiner, the Bill is to be published today. The Labour...
Up to 200 mothers of children born by surrogate mothers are now entitled to go to court to be named as the legal parents of their children on foot of a High Court ruling this week. Fertility clinics are also considering whether to offer surrogacy services within Ireland, depending on whether there is an appeal...
Up to 200 mothers of children born by surrogate mothers are now entitled to go to court to be named as the legal parents of their children on foot of a High Court ruling this week. Fertility clinics are also considering whether to offer surrogacy services within Ireland, depending on whether there is an appeal...
