In 2022, an estimated 123,802 people aged 50 and over received family care. This number is projected to increase by 49 to 58 per cent by 2040.

If people not currently in receipt of care but experiencing difficulties with basic personal care or carrying out tasks needed for independent living are included, then the projected number of people requiring care would more than double.

Population ageing is the main driver of the projected increases in care need, followed by population growth. Assumptions about healthy ageing could offset some of the projected increase but not remove the underlying pressure from population ageing.

A split is emerging among GPs over a legislative bill that would remove the 3-day wait before having an abortion.

Over 100 doctors so far have signed a petition addressed to the Oireachtas urging them to retain the waiting period and opposes the stance taken by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGPs).

The petition says there is “no clinical basis” for the proposed removal of the three-day wait.

The wording seems a direct response to a HSE representative telling an Oireachtas committee that there was “no clinical reason” to retain the waiting period.

“Not all women who attend a GP for a first consultation on abortion are certain about their decision. A substantial minority of women change their mind in the ensuing days”, it reads.

“The Medical Council’s Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics (section 15) states that informed consent should provide time for patients to consider the information before making a decision, and that the process should factor in the nature and complexity of the procedure.

“Given the irreversible nature of an abortion, it is our belief that the current reflection period offers a reasonable and appropriate safeguard for women”.

The Convention was established last year by the then Minister for Education, Helen McEntee. It is described as a once in a generation opportunity to “shape Ireland’s education system for decades to come”.

It has been taking place across four weekends in March, May, September, and November.

Last Sunday featured a panel discussion on School Values and Culture. The panellists were Kieran Golden, Former Principal of Mayfield Community School; Andrea Burke-Khan, Principal of Griffeen Valley Educate Together National School; Ebun Josef, Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Racial Equality and Racism; and, David Joyce, Coordinator for Further and Higher Education at Pavee Point- Traveller and Roma Centre.

The session begun with videos from BelongTo, an LGBTQ+ youth organisation, and from the Traveller Community

Nienke Neeven, an advisor to the Dutch Minister of Education, spoke at a later session titled “An international perspective” with her views on “the curriculum of the future”.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday attacked the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide as immoral “false compassion”. France recently passed a law permitting both.

Leo’s visit to the once staunchly Catholic and officially secular France has been marked by huge crowds — 800,000 at Leo’s Mass on Paris’s iconic Place de la Concorde — and his messaging against both abortion and assisted suicide.

On Sunday, the American pope celebrated Mass before some 150,000 people — many in wheelchairs — on a field next to Lourdes’ main basilica. He then visited a care center for sick people on the sanctuary’s grounds. He sought to encourage especially those who live in “terrible pain” that they have inherent dignity that no law or algorithm can “eliminate.”

“On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” he said. “What is legal is not necessarily moral,” Leo said to applause from the crowd.

In Lourdes, where the church has recognised 72 “miraculous” cures as authentic, the question of respecting even the most frail, sick and vulnerable is particularly acute.

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”.