Planning for Ireland’s falling fertility rate is now a strategic issue facing the new Government, according to a leading economist. The fertility rate is now 1.5. The level needed to keep your population level without immigration is 2.1.

Writing in the Irish Times, John Fitzgerald said society is rapidly ageing, while birth rates continue to drop steadily. The CSO projects that by 2057 around 30pc of the population will be over 65, double the present level, even with high immigration.

“This means . . . a lower share of people of working age will be supporting a growing number of pensioners and their health and care needs”.

He noted that there is still a “limited understanding” of what factors are driving fertility decline, adding that most countries that have tried to halt the trend have looked to policies such as better child benefits or ones that make it easier to combine a career and family life such as better childcare and parental leave.

However, citing the Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin, he said that such measures, while good for women’s and children’s health, had little impact on arresting the decline in birth rates.

Young people know much more about contraception than about fertility according to the latest ESRI reports while a large cohort of young women regret their first act of sexual intercourse.

Knowledge of the best method for STI prevention is high among young people aged 20 (with over 80 per cent of young men and women correctly identifying condoms).

However, knowledge of fertility (specifically the period during the female menstrual cycle when pregnancy is most likely to occur) is much lower, with just 21 per cent of men, and 37 per cent of women, answering correctly.

Furthermore, young women were significantly more likely to express regret over the timing of first sex than young men (a quarter of young women thought that it had happened ‘too soon’, in contrast to 10 per cent of young men who thought it had happened ‘too soon’). Later age of sexual initiation was associated with a lower probability of perceiving that first sex had occurred ‘too soon’.

Rebuilding strong, stable families would reignite economic growth and lessen the need for Government spending, leading to a more prosperous society.

That’s according to the macroeconomist and financial analyst, Philip Pilkington, who presented a paper on the topic at the ARC Forum in London.

Low fertility rates, mental health issues, drug abuse, or criminality are all deeply tied to family breakdown, so restoring stable family formation is a hidden key to unlocking long-run economic growth, he said.

“Our national deficits are a symptom of social malaise. Family breakdown is driving spiralling public debt. Evidence reviewed in this paper provides an overview of a variety of costs to the state, from social care to mental health to crime—and shows that the family touches every area of policy”.

“It is time to reframe how we think about economic growth and realise that there is more to it than productivity. It is time to recognise the importance of a productively employed population and how it is driven by labour force participation and population growth. If we are to see an uptick in our demographic trends and a reversal of the downward trajectory in labour force participation, we must restore the family”, he concluded.

MPs who previously supported the UK’s assisted dying bill have announced that they will change their vote after a major safeguard was ditched from the proposed legislation.

The bill’s author, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, announced she would drop the requirement for a High Court judge to adjudicate ‘assisted dying’ requests, and instead use a commission of psychiatrists and social workers to approve applications.

The dramatic move has already changed the perspective of some MPs.

Reform’s Rupert Lowe had already indicated that he would be voting against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at third reading, having been unconvinced by the committee-stage scrutiny of the bill after initially voting in favour.

Now his party colleague Lee Anderson has joined him in opposing the legislation.

Liberal Democrat grandee Alistair Carmichael had also backed the bill at second reading, but is now rethinking his support.

Meanwhile, The Independent understands that a further 140 MPs who voted in favour are now in play to change their votes. The bill passed the second-reading stage with a majority of 55, and only 28 would need to change their minds for it to fail.

Men are significantly more romantic than women according to a new study that points to innate differences between the sexes.

The research combined the findings of more than 50 previous psychological and sociological papers and found that overall, women may be relatively unsentimental in matters of the heart.

The data showed men tending, on average, to fall in love faster and more often, to yearn for a partner more and to confess their love first.

When it came to break-ups, they were also less likely to initiate them, with about 65 per cent of “relationship dissolutions” instigated by women.

Following a separation, men tended to suffer more. “They often see fewer positives [emerging from] the break-up, experience fewer positive emotions such as relief or joy, feel lonelier, and even have a more pronounced increase in suicide risk — in some studies, it even doubles,” said Iris V. Wahring of the Humboldt University of Berlin, lead author of the new paper.

The study found that men also tend to benefit more from being involved in a relationship, in terms of mental health and life expectancy. For instance, one previous paper reported that men’s risk of an early death increased by 27 per cent following a spouse’s death; for women it rose by only 15 per cent.

Irish people are healthier than their EU peers, but an ageing population will pose challenges for the health service into the future, according to a new report.

The Department of Health’s Health In Ireland Key Trends 2024 is an annual publication outlining trends in health and healthcare in Ireland over the past decade, and highlighting the challenges healthcare faces into the future.

Since 2015, the population has grown by 14.8pc – the population aged 65 and over grew by 36.5pc between 2015 and 2024.

Last year, the percentage of the population aged 65 and over stood at 15.5pc. Based on projections in the Department of Health’s report, that figure will rise to 23.8pc by 2044.

Rising life expectancy and an ageing population will put increasing pressure on the health service in the years to come, an issue that needs to be addressed according to Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

A UK Labour MP has announced that she will scrap a proposed major safeguard to her assisted suicide Bill, leading critics to claim that patient protections are being removed before the draft legislation has even become law.

In November, Kim Leadbeater MP was able to persuade the House of Commons to vote for her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at Second Reading by 330 to 275, partly because she gave robust assurances of its safety.

Among the key proposed safeguards was the requirement for a High Court judge to scrutinise and approve each application for doctor-assisted death. Ms Leadbeater announced today, however, that the judiciary will not be involved, but that each application will instead go before a multi-disciplinary expert panel which will include a social worker, lawyer, and psychiatrist.

James Cleverly, the former Conservative Home Secretary who opposed the Bill, took to social media to warn voters that safeguards were being removed by a loaded committee chosen by Ms Leadbeater to scrutinise the Bill.

Only 54pc of those aged 25-34 years plan to get married and/or have children in the future, according to a new survey commissioned by the Catholic marriage counselling service, Accord.

The figure was part of a survey done by the Amárach research firm on over 1000 adults.

The survey also found that 84pc of adults in Ireland say that the housing crisis is causing some couples to delay getting married and/or have children, reflecting a widely held belief.

Of the 54pc of those aged 25-34 who plan to get married and/or have children, just under half, 48pc, say they would have married before now if it wasn’t for the housing situation (33pc would have married in the past three years but didn’t).

Moreover, 60pc of couples planning to have children would have done so before now if it wasn’t for the housing situation (36pc would have had a child in the past three years but didn’t).

A Christian school worker in the UK who was dismissed after sharing social media posts questioning the wisdom of teaching gender theory has won a Court of Appeal battle.

Kristie Higgs lost her role as a pastoral administrator and work experience manager at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach about gender ideology and same-sex marriage in primary schools.

In a judgment on Wednesday – the latest stage of her years-long legal battle – three judges ruled in her favour.

Lord Justice Underhill said: “In the present case the claimant, who was employed in a secondary school, had posted messages, mostly quoted from other sources, objecting to Government policy on sex education in primary schools because of its promotion of ‘gender fluidity’ and its equation of same-sex marriage with marriage between a man and a woman.

He added that her beliefs are protected by the Equality Act.

A pro-life volunteer has been arrested by UK police for silently standing in a public area near an abortion clinic. It is not the first time this has happened to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce under draconian measures against any form of pro-life activity, even silent vigils, that takes place near abortion facilities. The same kind of law exists in Ireland.

Video footage shows a West Midlands Police officer demand that Ms Vaughan-Spruce leave a public area because of what she is known to believe – despite her simply standing alone, praying silently, without undertaking any actions.

The footage shows the police officer explain that he believes Isabel’s “mere presence” may constitute “harassment, alarm and distress”, given that she is known to have pro-life beliefs and belong to a pro-life organisation. He thus concluded that she was breaching the rules of the “buffer zone” – an area within 150m of an abortion facility.

The incident took place despite West Midlands Police previously issuing an apology and a payout of £13,000 for breaching Vaughan-Spruce’s human rights on two prior occasions where they arrested her for praying silently in the same “buffer zone”.