The Iona Institute ~ for Religion and Society

• Marriage & the Family
• Schools & Education
• Religion & Religious Practice
• Freedom of Conscience & Religion
• Other

• Majority of Britons believe religion is a force for good
• Waters warns of growing attack on religious freedom
• Northern Ireland society breaking down says think tank
• Women’s ‘double shift’ of home and work duties a myth finds new research
• Controversial Equal Treatment directive held up by disagreements

• The recession and marriage
• Is race a relevant factor in adoption decisions?
• Money scruples obscure real moral issue in AHR debate
• Britain’s failed teenage pregnancy strategy
• Is Ireland really the most expensive for day-care?

• Lecture: "Why religion will make a comeback"
  10th June 2010
• Lecture: ‘Reducing teenage pregnancy and sexual activity’
  25th March 2010
• Making Babies: a conference on the ethics of Assisted Human Reproduction
  9th December 2009
• Studies/Iona Institute lecture: 'The place of religion within the European Union'
  16th November 2009

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Featured Issue

The Government's tax individualisation policy was controversially introduced by then Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy in 1999.

Despite the furor, the policy remained. In the intervening 11 years, changes in tax policy have meant that one-income married couple with children can pay up to €6,240 more in tax each year than a two-income married couple on the same earnings.

This amounts to €120 per week. A discrepancy of this magnitude can only be justified if there are overwhelming economic and social reasons for such different treatment.

In March 2007, the Iona Institute published a paper on the Government's individualisation policy. The paper, the Institute's first, was launched by Labour Finance Spokesperson Joan Burton, who also wrote the foreword to the paper.

Written by lawyer John P Byrne, the paper, Tax Individualisation: Time for a Critical Rethink, argued that that the tax treatment of one-income married couples amounted to an injustice that should be rectified. One-income married couples and two-income married couples should be treated on the same basis for tax purposes."