The Government has given an assurance to the bishops that there will be no watering down of the Constitutional rights of the family under a proposed amendment on children’s rights, according to a report in today's Irish Catholic.

Archbishop Sean Brady, Primate of All-Ireland, has welcomed the establishment of the Iona Institute as a “timely initiative”, according to a report in the Irish Catholic newspaper..

For what is believed to be the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one.

The Government's planned referendum on children's rights, which could change as many as three separate articles of the Constitution, may only present voters with one question.

A new longitudinal study of the lives of children in Ireland will include questions about family structure allowing Irish researchers to investigate for the first time and in a meaningful way the effects of family structure on children.

Laws which give cohabiting couples marriage-like rights may not lead to fewer marriages, according to new research.

A lawyer from the firm responsible for the "Unhappy Christmas" ad has apologised. Angela Farrell, a managing partner of Farrell Family Law Solicitors, who were behind the ad, said that regretted any offence caused.

Ireland's divorce laws are in need of "a fundamental examination", according to Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne. Senator Browne expressed concern that Irish divorces are awarded on a "no fault" basis.

Marriage and prayer are among some of the key factors in people's happiness, a new study commissioned by the UK Government has found. The research, carried out by an economics professor at London's Imperial College, found that people in stable relationships and people who prayed were more content than their fellow citizens.

Two elderly spinster sisters yesterday lost a legal battle to be given the same rights as gay and lesbian couples - meaning one will be forced to sell their home of 40 years when the other dies. The judgement holds that a sexual relationship is necessary before "marriage like" inheritance and tax rights can be claimed under the UK's Civil Partnership Act of 2004. The effect of the judgement is to elevate sexual relations above lifelong care and mutual support as reasons for State support for certain types of relationship.

Joyce and Sybil Burden, who have lived together all their lives, argued they should be spared inheritance tax in the same way as married couples, or homosexuals who form a civil partnership. The two have lived in the same home for 40 years. But yesterday the European Court of Human Rights threw out their case, by a 4-3 verdict, landing them with a £10,000 legal bill and a tax timebomb.

The sister who lives the longest faces the agony of selling the family home when the other dies in order to raise £61,000 in inheritance tax.

Joyce, 88, said the sisters had only wanted the same protection given to lesbians and gays under the 2004 Act.

'We have spent our lives looking after people and never once done anything wrong" she continued. And now we are being punished for doing the right thing. This government is always going out of its way to give rights to people who have done nothing to deserve them.

'If we were lesbians, we would have all the rights in the world. But we are sisters, and it seems we have no rights at all. It is disgusting that we are being treated like this. It is an insult.'

The two sisters decided to write to the European courts after Labour introduced the Civil Partnership Act in 2004. The Act granted the same right to gay and lesbian couples to avoid inheritance tax as married couples, but not to cohabiting family members.

But, by the narrowest of verdicts, the court yesterday sided with the British government - which effectively argued it was legally entitled to discriminate against siblings.

Britain's representative in the court, Nicolas Bratza, was one of four judges who voted against the spinsters. Their judgment said they agreed that there is no comparison between siblings and gays, so they are not entitled to the same rights.

One of the judges who backed the spinsters said that while the ruling was legal, it was unfair.

Family campaigners said the court's ruling gave the legal stamp of approval to discrimination in favour of gay couples. Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said the ruling is also a blow to children who live with elderly parents, in order to care for them. They also face picking up a huge inheritance tax bill when the parent dies.

She added: 'In a case like this, where their lives have been intertwined for many years, it seems very unfair they are not afforded the same protection as a couple who have registered a civil partnership but whose lives have not been shared to anything like the same extent.

'Once the decision was taken to extend rights beyond those who are married, it is only reasonable it should be offered to couples in situations like this'.

Author Patricia Morgan, an expert on the family, said: 'I do not see any reason why one type of relationship should qualify, and another should not. It is direct discrimination.

'Part of the reason is no doubt financial. The Government does not want to lose the money.'

The sisters' solicitor said last night that they are considering an appeal. Emma Stradling said: 'Understandably, Joyce and Sybil Burden are bitterly disappointed with this judgment, particularly because they came so close to a favourable ruling.

'The sisters will now consider an appeal to the Grand Chamber, once the full implications of today's ruling and the process of appeal have been given proper thought.'

Family breakdown is the key cause of the collapse of social cohesion in the UK. That's according to a major new study published by the Conservative Party. The study, commissioned by former leader Iain Duncan Smith, paints a disturbing picture of the decline of the institution of marriage in Britain. And it details the painful social consequences which have resulted from the phenomenon of family breakdown.

A High Court judge has warned that the research showing that children of same sex parents have substantially similar outcomes to those of heterosexual parents is not sufficiently advanced to draw and safe conclusions.