Ireland is running out of time to prepare for an ageing population, according to Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI).

The body has written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin calling on the Government to convene a national dialogue on ageing “without delay”.

The population aged 85 and over will grow by 162% by 2045, while more than one million people will be aged over 65 by the end of this decade, according to Department of Health projections.

“Ireland is sleepwalking into one of the biggest social and healthcare challenges in its history,” Chief Executive of Nursing Homes Ireland Tadhg Daly said at its annual conference.

“We know exactly what is coming, yet we are still not planning with the ambition and scale required.

“The clock is ticking, and we must forward plan instead of simply hoping the necessary infrastructure, care capacity, and support services will somehow appear,” he said.

The HSE has been strongly attacked by the Pro-Life Campaign following its appearance before the Oireachtas Health Committee this week.

The Committee is considering a Sinn Fein bill that would abolish the mandatory 3-day waiting period before a woman can have an abortion.

Representatives of the HSE spoke in favour of the change, claimed there was no ‘clinical reason’ for retaining it, although the main reason it exists is to try and save unborn lives.

Responding, the PLC said: “The HSE came before the Oireachtas Health Committee on Wednesday effectively campaigning for the abolition of the three-day wait, yet failed to produce a single cogent piece of evidence to support its removal.

The delegation claimed there is “no clinical requirement for a mandatory three-day waiting period.” In doing so, they sought to turn the debate into a medical and clinical one, but the reality is that the vast majority of abortions are carried out for socio-economic reasons and 98% of abortions take place under the ground where no reason for the abortion has to be given.

It is totally misleading for HSE representatives to convey the impression that they possess some special authority or insight when it comes to deciding whether the three-day wait should stay or go.”

Political Editor, Pat Leahy, noted in The Irish Times: “It is unusual for a State body to express a view on a policy matter before the Oireachtas, especially one as sensitive as abortion”.

A leading expert on falling birth rates has said that if a couple want to have two or more children, they should start trying in their 20s, rather than wait until their 30s, to maximise their chances.

Michael Hess who tweets under the handle ‘More Births’ cited a study that showed when the woman is in her 20s the odds of being able to have two or more children is greater than 90pc.

However, by the time she is 35, 1/3 of couples will be unable to have two children naturally.

To have very strong odds of success (>90pc), the authors of the study he cites write, “couples should start no later than age 32 years for a one-child family, at 27 years for a two-child family, and at 23 years for three children.”

The study also shows that IVF doesn’t change the fertility curve all that much.

“The fertility gain from IVF is far less than the fertility gain from simply starting in the 20s”.

For those who want just one child, the curve is more forgiving.

Women who start at 40 still have a 60pc chance of having at least one child naturally – and that rises to 70pc with IVF.

There is no way for Ireland to avoid the demographic disaster afflicting the likes of Japan and Italy, according to Tánaiste & Minister for Finance Simon Harris TD. He offers no solutions.

In a speech to the ESRI yesterday, Mr Harris said: “In this highly uncertain world, our demographic outlook is clear. From the middle of the next decade, we will begin to age rapidly. By 2050, just 24 years away, Ireland will look a lot like Italy or Japan does today.

“In such a society, growth will be lower, costs will be higher and the burden on taxpayers – our children – will be immense”.

He concluded: “There is no way of avoiding that fate.”

His policy response is to run economic surpluses and invest in a sovereign wealth fund.

However, Government spending via the National Development Fund, he said, “won’t be enough”.

In addition, there was an “economic necessity” to improve institutional childcare as, he said, the lack of women in the workforce was limiting the economy. This is despite a huge majority voting in favour of keeping the mother-in-the-home provision in the Constitution in a referendum two years ago.

The CSO projects that by 2057, around 30pc of the population will be over 65, double the 2022 figure.

Ireland’s birth rate is 1.5, well below the 2.1 replacement level.

Christians in a town in Kebbi State Nigeria have reportedly been presented with an ultimatum by an Islamist terrorist group demanding they convert, leave, or pay a tax.

The ultimatum came from a relatively new group known as the Lakurawa.

They emerged a few years ago promising to protect locals from bandits and cattle thieves. However, the group soon began making more ideological demands, checking people’s phones and having them flogged if they had music on them.

Nigeria designated the Lakurawa as a terrorist group in January 2025, accusing it of hostage taking, attacks on officials and cattle theft.

In the most recent outrage, members of the group opened fire on a local Evangelical church. At least one person was wounded.

Nigerian authorities have long been criticised for their failure to take action against the militant and bandit groups that plague parts of the country.

The internet appears to have hastened the rise of secularism a new research paper claims. A similar phenomenon, especially the rise of smart phones, is also linked to a decline in marriage and birth rates.

Citing the findings of a just published paper on the topic, he says “when Internet penetration rose, religiosity declined in a dataset of 81 countries”.

The authors of the study “Internet Diffusion and Religious Decline: Evidence from 81 Countries, 1990–2022”, say this was true across the board even as they controlled for various factors.

In addition, they found digital connectivity most strongly associated with religious decline concerning “institutional belonging and self-identification as a religious person”.

“By contrast, associations with ritual attendance and confidence in churches are smaller and often statistically insignificant, while the reported importance of religion and God shows modest, sample-sensitive decreases”.

The Irish College of General Practitioners received sustained criticism yesterday for not consulting their own members before advocating the abolition of the 3-day abortion waiting period.

90pc of GPs currently do not participate in the administration of chemical abortions.

Representatives of the College addressed a Joint Oireachtas Committee that is considering a Sinn Fein bill to remove the mandatory 3-day ‘cooling off’ period.

Colm Burke, TD FG, Padraig O’Sullivan, TD FF, and Peadar Toibin, TD Aontu, voiced their surprise that the body purporting to speak for GPs had not consulted GPs.

The representatives of the College also received criticism for not having gathered evidence from women who availed of the 3-day wait to change their mind about aborting their unborn child.

According to HSE figures, over a five-year period, 10,534 women did not return to proceed with an abortion after the three-day period had elapsed.

Senator Sarah O’Reilly spoke of her own experience of trauma, confusion and panic when she had a crisis pregnancy as a 16 year old . She described the 3-day wait as a reflective period that “supports” women, and its abolition would create a “barrier” for women.

An international coalition has asked the United Nations to officially recognise surrogacy as “a new form of slavery involving women and children.”

The Casablanca group of experts and the French NGO Juristes Pour l’Enfance made the request on the centennial of the 1926 Slavery Convention for consideration at an upcoming Human Rights Council session dedicated to the occasion.

The brief argues that surrogacy reduces the child in utero to an object of disposal, which corresponds to the definition of slavery set forth in the 1926 document, namely, the exercise of the attributes of the right of ownership.

As for the woman carrying the baby, her body is subjected to the will of third parties, which includes control over her diet and medical care as well as, potentially, embryo reduction or abortion, the statement explains.

Several United Nations bodies have already characterized surrogacy as the sale of children and in July 2025, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls called for the eradication of all forms of surrogacy and the adoption of a binding international instrument to abolish this practice.

New poll findings show strong public backing for the retention of the three-day reflection period before an abortion.

Of those who expressed an opinion in the Amárach Research poll, 55.3% voiced support for retention of the three-day wait, while 44.7% favoured its removal.

The results come as a Sinn Féin bill to abolish the waiting period passed a preliminary vote in the Dáil, 86 to 70, shortly before the summer recess.

Commenting on the findings, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said public support for retaining the three-day reflection period has been evident for months and, if anything, appears to be strengthening.

“Replies to parliamentary questions show that, over a five-year period, 10,534 women did not return to proceed with an abortion after the three-day period had elapsed. That’s an incredible figure and one that, in our view, proves the life-saving impact of the waiting period. We hear from women all the time about how important the reflection period was to them in providing that extra space to think through such a profound and life-altering decision”.