Figures from the EU statistics agency Eurostat, show that Ireland had the highest birth rate among European Union countries last year. The figures, which were released Monday, also showed the State had the joint lowest death rate among EU nations.
There were 63,900 live births recorded in Ireland during 2016, a rate of 13.5 births for every 1,000 of the population. This birth rate was well ahead of Sweden and the UK (11.8 per 1,000) and France (11.7 per 1,000). Countries at the opposite end of the scale included Italy, with 7.8 children born per 1,000 people. Other southern European countries also recorded low birth rates: Portugal had a rate of 8.4 per 1,000 behind Greece ( 8.6) and Spain (8.7).
The figures did not include the total fertility rate which is the number of births per woman over a lifetime. The population replacement rate is 2.1 and in 2015, Ireland recorded a rate of just 1.92. Indeed, no EU country in 2015 had a fertility rate equal to or above the replacement level of 2.1.
A new Education Bill will require all schools to publish details of their provisions for pupils who wish to “opt out” of religious classes. However, this is not good enough for equality campaigners who want more detailed guidance on “realistic provisions” for catering to students who choose to opt out of religion class. Complaining about current arrangements, Education Equality said that children are left to sit at the back of the class during religious instruction, absorbing much of the material being taught contrary to their parents’ wishes while also feeling excluded from the rest of their classmates.
The Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP), the educational office of Catholic bishops, however has said that its schools already receive guidance on inclusivity and have led the way in integrating students from all faith traditions and none. The group says its work in this area has been acknowledged by the ESRI and Department of Education inspectors’ reports, which have found an “overwhelming majority of parents and students find their schools to be well-managed and welcoming”.
Prominent Irish pro-life group, the Life Institute, have ramped up their preparation for a likely abortion referendum by registering as a third party with the Standards in Public Office (SIPO) Commission. The move will allow them to raise funds for political purposes within the legal framework established by the Government in 1997 that requires donations to occur only within strict limits. A spokeswoman for the institute said they had not been registered previously as they have been “an education-and-awareness organisation who work to ensure the human rights of both mother and child are upheld.” However, now they will be able to fundraise specifically for the political work of winning any future abortion referendum: “For the upcoming referendum, the campaign to retain the Eighth will be registered with Sipo, and any political donations received will be included in the accounting,” she said.
In a hard hitting address in Germany, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said that the Catholic educational establishment needs to focus more on faith formation and less on questions of ownership and management.
He said that while 90% of primary schools in Ireland are under religious patronage, and are almost fully financed by the State; yet, less than 80% of the population registers as Catholic, even as preparation for First Communion and Confirmation is carried out primarily in the schools. Nonetheless, he said, “There is a stubborn reluctance within the Church to allow that situation to change. With the exception of Catholic Schools Week, the Irish religious education establishment is fixated on questions of ownership and management and too little on the purpose of the Catholic school and the outcomes of Catholic education in terms of faith formation.”
The Archbishop said he has urged many Catholic schools to hand themselves over to the State, but he has been largely unsuccessful. “From the moment of my appointment as Archbishop, I advocated a process of divestment of a substantial number Catholic schools to foster a more pluralist presence which would reflect changing demographics. It would also open the possibility of more clearly defining the Catholic nature of catholic schools. I have to admit that I have been relatively unsuccessful in pushing that idea into practice.” He said that, without such divestment, it will become harder for Catholic schools to maintain a genuine Catholic ethos: “The risk now looms large that effectively it will become more and more difficult to maintain a true Catholic ethos in Catholic schools. The move towards parishes undertaking more effective faith formation of young people is miniscule. I fear that much of the debate about schools fails to address the real challenges about the religious education of our young people.”
Canada’s Catholic bishops have slammed Justin Trudeau’s Government for putting a radical abortion rights agenda “at the core” of the country’s foreign policy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland had earlier said the new Government had put abortion and “sexual reproductive rights” at “the core” of Canada’s international commitment and they were seeking a two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council to globally promote access to abortion, which she described as a “Canadian value.”
But the bishops blasted Freeland’s statement as “erroneous, confusing and misguided,” and rebuked the Liberal Party for pushing a “political ideology” and a “particular” brand of feminism while disregarding the genuine needs and convictions of people in the developing world.
Trade unions are calling on the Government to introduce legislation to force organisations with more than 50 staff to reveal data on the average pay gap between male and female employees.
Spokesperson for the trade union Impact, Linda Kelly, said compulsory reporting of organisations’ gender pay gaps would “shine a light on inequity”. “It will help decent employers to compete for the best talent in the labour market. Just for once, it could have them competing to pay people more. It will empower women to organise and bargain, armed with the facts and with public opinion on their side. And it will enable trade unionists, citizens and progressive organisations to take account of the gender pay gap when making decisions about how they spend their money,” she said.
A hospital in New York has offered to admit the critically-ill British child, Charlie Gard, who has been the centre of a legal struggle to receive experimental therapy. The hospital said it would also be willing to send the treatment to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK if his transfer to the USA could not be occur. In a statement, the New York hospital said it had “agreed to admit and evaluate Charlie, provided that arrangements are made to safely transfer him to our facility, legal hurdles are cleared, and we receive emergency approval from the FDA for an experimental treatment as appropriate”.
It added: “Alternatively, if approved by the FDA, we will arrange shipment of the experimental drug to Great Ormond Street hospital and advise their medical staff on administering it if they are willing to do so.”
Controversy threatened to disrupt the Oireachtas all-party committee on abortion yesterday even before its public deliberations had begun. TDs of Solidarity/People Before Profit, who want full repeal of the Eighth Amendment followed by a radical abortion regime, objected to the terms of the committee being set by its Chair, Senator Catherine Noone of Fine Gael, who is also pro-choice, as being too restrictive. Specifically, they complained that the wording only mentioned amending, rather than repealing, the Eighth Amendment, and that the Assembly’s more liberal recommendations, such as abortion on socio-economic grounds were ignored. “If we hadn’t challenged it we could have been left with a really narrow remit that wouldn’t have been in keeping with the spirit of the Citizens’ Assembly,” Ms Coppinger said. The committee’s chair, Catherine Noone, it was claimed, had sought to focus on “minor cases of rape and fatal foetal anomalies”, but, Ms Coppinger added, “We said there is a woman at stake here”. Senator Noone rejected the charges as “absurd”. Nonetheless, the Committee’s agenda was changed to reflect the concerns of the more radical members.
The question of whether the Committee would seek full repeal of the Eight Amendment followed by a liberal abortion law, or seek a partial change to the Constitution with a narrow abortion law is expected to come to the fore. The former would hew closely to the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly and is the preferred route of pro-choice campaigners. However, many think the latter is the only option that has a reasonable chance of gaining majority support with the public.
The Government has announced the next census in 2021 will have an increased budget to allow for the inclusion of new questions. It is thought that questions about religion and ethnicity are likely to be changed. In the past, groups such as Atheist Ireland have complained that the question about religion was too binary, asking people to simply to state what their religion is. They have asked that people be asked instead about what religion they “practice” so as to allow a distinction between those who do and those who are lapsed. They claim that this would give a better gauge of religious adherence among the public.
Former Tánaiste and Labour party leader, Joan Burton, has called for a referendum on the pro-life amendment to take place before the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland in August of next year. Speaking in the Dáil she said it would be “highly desirable” if the Taoiseach would commit to holding the referendum between March and June 2018, as “it is appropriate for it to be held then because it should not become embroiled in the visit of the Pope to Ireland before the end of the summer”.
“We want a respectful debate. It is a very difficult personal issue for huge numbers of people. The people who campaign on the ‘ultra’ sides of either side may have very clear and shrill views but many citizens will want the opportunity to come to their conclusions about what is the most appropriate option,” she said. Labour wants Ireland to introduce a British-style abortion law which sees almost 200,000 abortions per annum performed in the UK.
