The Labour Party says the legal definition of ‘family’ should be changed to include cohabiting couples and other family units that are not based on marriage. Leo Varadkar has made a similar call in the past.

Even though same-sex couples are now allowed to marry, they believe that ‘marriage equality’ needs to become ‘family equality’. Currently, the Constitution pledges the State to protect marriage, but not the family in general.

Labour TD, and spokesperson on children, Ivana Bacik says there is a “a special bubble for families based on marriage”, and that this excludes “other households and other forms of family from Constitutional protection.”

She says the practical impact of this was recently highlighted in the case of John O’Meara from Co Tipperary.

“[His] long-term partner and mother of his children, Michelle Beatty, had died tragically.

“Because they had never married, despite having co-habited for a long, long time, he could not be entitled to a Survivors Pension.

“So his relationship was not recognised by the State – whereas the State in fact does recognise co-habitation for the purpose of depriving people of benefits in other cases in our social welfare code.

“So there’s inconsistency there, but there’s also an unfair discrimination against co-habiting couples”.

“The reality in Ireland today is that we have 150,000 households, according to the last Census, based on a co-habiting couple who are not married – and 75,000 of those households have children.

Christians in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are living in fear after radical Hindu activists stepped up a campaign for the reconversion of indigenous people.

“Our people are frightened as radical Hindu groups are pressurising the indigenous Christians to give up their faith in Christianity,” Father Rocky Shah, the public relations officer of the Catholic Diocese of Jhabua, told Aid to the Church in Need.

In Jhabua, a district where indigenous people are in the majority, Christians comprise 4 percent of the population. In the state at large, Christians make up less than one percent of the population of 71 million.

He said: “The Hindu activists are running campaigns demanding action against priests and pastors who are leading the Christian communities and they threatened to demolish our churches under the false charge that they are built illegally on the lands of indigenous people”.

The Hindu activists’ plan to destroy churches in the district, however, was frustrated by timely action from the district administration. “More than 300 police were deployed to guard the Catholic cathedral and other church structures,” following the threats from the radical Hindus, the priest says.

It will be given four months to complete its work.

The committee will be provided with an issues paper drafted by officials in the Departments of Justice, Health and Children, in consultation with relevant ministers and their officials, to assist the committee in its deliberations.

The recommendations of the committee will then be considered by the Minister for Health as the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill progresses through the legislative process.

It is expected that any necessary legislative provisions which arise out of the committee’s examination will be inserted into the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill at committee stage.

Elements of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill, designed to help adopted people find their biological parents, are incompatible with GDPR, an Oireachtas committee heard today.

In separate opening statements to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, solicitors Simon McGarr and Fred Logue told TDs and Senators that the bill also seeks to legislate for legal rights that are already covered by data protection laws.

Mr McGarr takes issue with the requirement for a mandatory information session in cases where a person seeks their birth certificate, but the parent has registered a “no contact” preference.

In his statement, M he states: “There is no legislative provision setting out what the purpose of this restriction would be as it is acknowledged that the record will be granted in all cases.”

He points out that any entity, including State entity, must provide any personal data it holds on an individual, upon their request.

Mr Logue describes the bill as “misconceived”.

“From my reading, the bill is drafted from the point of view that it is giving people a new right to access information that they currently don’t enjoy.

“However this point of departure is misconceived because adopted people already have a right to access to their information,” he will tell the committee.

Mr Logue said that the barriers to access are practical rather than legal because in many cases there is not enough information for adoptees to identify their own birth cert.

A civil action is being taken by four siblings against NUI Galway, alleging they were discriminated against and victimised by college authorities because of their religious beliefs, something the college denies.

Among other matters, Enoch, Kezia and Ammi Burke spoke about events on campus in 2014 during a referendum on same-sex marriage.

The siblings had set up an information table and put up posters quoting scripture and advocating a ‘No’ vote. They said their posters were ripped down and they were subjected to sustained verbal and online abuse.

Enoch Burke said he was traumatised, humiliated and deeply fearful. He said the “invective, projectiles” and selfies taken by students continued for an hour-and-a-half.

The court was told that a ‘mob’ came and sat on the floor, blocked doors and humiliated the Burke siblings. They said college security was called for, but never came.

Kezia Burke broke down in court saying she was “tormented” by the events on campus and that it was not right for a 23-year-old college student to be subjected to such abuse and to be victimised, with her brothers and sister, for what she said was their right to express their strongly held religious beliefs and convictions.

A feminist academic who was subjected to “bullying and harassment” by students because of her views on transgender rights has resigned.

Professor Kathleen Stock, a philosopher at the University of Sussex, stepped down after protests in Brighton over accusations of “transphobia”.

Stock has argued against reform of the Gender Recognition Act to allow self-identification and believes biological women should be treated different compared with biological males who identify as women.

Announcing her resignation last week, she hit out at the protesters, saying that she and her family had been put through “an absolutely horrible time”. In recent weeks students in balaclavas have paraded banners through the city calling for her dismissal.

A government source said that Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and equalities minister, was “appalled” that Stock had “effectively been hounded and bullied out of a job for expressing an opinion. She thinks this sort of cancel culture is bad for our democracy and society.”

Students in Brighton welcomed Stock’s resignation but said they were disappointed that the University of Sussex had not responded to their petition to remove the academic earlier.

After protests began, the Sussex branch of the University and College Union called for an investigation into ‘transphobia’ at the university.

Stock said in a statement that she posted on Twitter yesterday that the union “seems to think it is OK” for gender-critical women to be bullied at work.

Married couples who meet online are six times more likely to divorce within the first three years than those who meet their partners through more traditional routes.

Research has found that 12 per cent of couples who met over the internet did not make their third anniversary, compared to just two per cent who found love via family or friends.

The report, by the Marriage Foundation, suggests that those who meet online are at higher risk of divorce because they could be ‘relative strangers’ when they tie the knot.

“Gathering reliable information about the long-term character of the person you are dating or marrying is quite obviously more difficult for couples who meet online without input from mutual friends or family or other community,” said Harry Benson, the foundation’s research director.

“For online couples, wider social bonds between families and friends have to form from scratch rather than being well-established over years or even decades. It is therefore not entirely unsurprising that the input of family, friends or co-workers reduces the risk of making a hasty mistake.”

A bill to introduce “anti-homophobia” legislation in Italy, harshly criticised by pro-family groups and Catholic leaders as an attack on free speech, failed in the Italian Senate on Wednesday.

The proposed law, known as “Ddl Zan,” was voted down 154 to 131, with two abstentions.

Italy’s Catholic bishops had spoken out against the bill, which they said had the potential to infringe on the civil liberties of those opposed to same-sex unions.

Earlier this month, the Vatican’s doctrinal office responded to a query regarding bills like “Ddl Zan” and listed the many times that Pope Francis has condemned gender ideology and said Catholic legislators must oppose laws inconsistent with Catholic teaching.

Toni Brandi, the president of Pro Vita & Famiglia, praised the Senate’s decision to drop the bill, saying that “the rejection of Ddl Zan is a victory for democracy, freedom of opinion and conscience, and the educational freedom of Italian families.”

In the US, former police cadets have alleged sexual harassment and mistreatment that included being forced to have abortions.

The women have taken a lawsuit against the Washington DC Police Department.

One of those is currently a high-ranking officer in the Department, Assistant Police Chief, Chanel Dickerson.

She told her story of harassment at a community meeting last week, but then she added something not included in her lawsuit: an ultimatum she was given as an 18 year old trainee to get an abortion or risk being fired from the police academy.

“Wow. My choice to have a baby was personal and it should’ve been mine alone and not for an employer ultimatum,” Dickerson said.

News of her admission prompted another officer to come forward with the same allegation.

Karen Arikpo has been with the DC police for 24 years.

She said her sergeant, a woman, told her class of recruits that if any one of them were pregnant they would need to get an abortion or be fired.

“So later that day, I went and told my class sergeant that I was pregnant. And she said I needed to have an abortion and she referred me to a doctor in D.C. to get it done,” Arikpo said.

She later bitterly regretted her decision as she became unable to have children.

Disability rights’ activists have welcomed the progress of a bill in NI to remove ‘severe impairment’ as a ground for surgically terminating a pregnancy and therefore stop eugenic abortion.

The bill has passed Committee Stage at the Northern Ireland Assembly, after 99% of the 9,125 submissions to a Northern Ireland Committee for Health consultation on the Bill supported the proposed law change.

Heidi Crowter, a campaigner who has Down Syndrome, welcomed the news, saying the current law “is downright discrimination” because it allows late-term abortion for babies with disabilities, but not healthy babies.

Lisa Allen from Belfast, whose son Aaron has Down Syndrome, also welcomed that the bill is one step closer to becoming law. “When Aaron was 4 weeks old we were told he would need surgery on his heart at 6 months old. He has 3 holes in his heart, a VSD, ASD and PDA. Aaron was sent home with a feeding tube and meds and we were told to prepare for his surgery at 6 months old. Nearly 6 years later and he is amazing his consultants and has still avoided surgery. Aaron is a loveable, strong and determined little boy. To think that now a baby like Aaron could have his life ended because of Down Syndrome breaks my heart. He has shown that he is strong, able and determined from day one”.