The Oireachtas Health Committee met recently for the last pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill that will regulate Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR). The hearings have confirmed that the Committee suffers from huge blind spots about some of pitfalls of AHR and the undermining in many cases of the rights of the resultant children. Two representatives of...
A new 11 country survey, which includes Ireland, examines the relationship between cohabiting couples compared with married couples. It finds that cohabiting couples are less likely to be satisfied with their relationships and family life generally. This has implications for the stability of those relationships and therefore, for children. Professor Patricia Casey wrote about the...
By David Mullins Let us imagine for a moment that An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, was invited to a meeting with the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The point of this meeting is to discuss how they can urge all citizens to engage in the European political debate and to vote with responsibility to protect and promote...
A new survey -the first of its kind in Ireland – examines the self-reported quality of relationships and family life between cohabiting couples with children compared with married couples with children and finds stronger levels of commitment and satisfaction among married couples. The survey took place across 11 countries and The Iona Institute is presenting...
Health Minister Simon Harris wants the State to provide free contraception as a way of reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. Evidence from other countries suggests that his plan won’t work and may be another waste of public money that would be better spent elsewhere. If we look at and compare abortion rates with easily...
Yet another study was published recently showing that “children born to unmarried parents are disadvantaged relative to children born to married parents in terms of parental capabilities and family stability”. The study follows the lives of 5,000 children born between 1998 and 2000 in large US cities. It is called the ‘Fragile Families and Child...
By Margaret Hickey At a recent conference in Trinity College titled ‘Working for the Home: Past and Present’, Senator Ivana Bacik bemoaned the fact that the government appears in no hurry to have a referendum on one of the most era defining aspirations of the 1937 Constitution which was that ‘the State recognizes that by...
By David Mullins The lead story in yesterday’s Irish Independent, ‘Church-run hospitals told to ditch holy symbols’ refers to the Report of the Independent Review Group that was commissioned by the Government in July 2017 to examine the role of voluntary organisations in publicly funded health and personal social services. Almost the entirety of the...
A growing number of people in countries like Ireland and the US say they don’t belong to any religion. When filling out a census form or responding to an opinion poll they might tick the box marked ‘none’. But is this the same as saying they have no religion at all? Funnily enough, it doesn’t...
A big review of the way Relationships and Sexuality Education is underway, led by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Yet, an absolutely crucial question that needs to be considered in all this is whether RSE-type programmes even work. What outcomes are they seeking, and are those outcomes being achieved? International data suggests, probably...
