The Catholic Church wants to have an input into deciding who will teach religion in the new, VEC-run, State primary schools due to be launched in three areas of Dublin in September. However, Bishop Leo O'Reilly, the head of the Church's education commission, has denied claims that the Church is seeking a veto over such issues.

The typical profile of a young offender is a male who lives with one parent and is likely to be a drug or alcohol user, according to a study of offenders who appeared before the Children's Court in 2004.

A clear majority of Irish people still believe in God, Heaven and sin and just under half attend weekly Mass or more, a new survey has revealed.

The decline of traditional marriage has created a series of problems, including school failure, poverty and crime, teachers in the UK have claimed.

Teens who have a sexual relationship with an older partner may face adverse consequences not only in the short-term but also into young adulthood, according to new research from US child welfare research centre Child Trends.

People with a religious faith have a greater capacity to deal with traumas such as losing a job or divorce, according to a new study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference. The conference, which began on Monday and ends today, heard that a survey of thousands of Europeans showed that believers have higher levels of "life satisfaction".

If Ireland legislates to permit same-sex civil partnerships, it could be compelled under international law to legalise gay adoption as well, according to two leading family lawyers.

The proposed children’s rights referendum will not be held until next year it has emerged. The delay in the referendum is because the Oireachtas Committee established to examine the matter has decided it needs more time.

The bar for State intervention in family life is too high when it comes to effectively helping children where their parents are failing in their duty, according to Fergus Finlay, Chief Executive of children’s charity, Barnardos.

Arguments about the definition of marriage were heard in California's Supreme Court yesterday in the most important US same-sex marriage case since Massachusetts’s highest court allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry there more than four years ago.

Scholars who study the family have become more worried about the decline of marriage since the late 1970s as new research about its detrimental effects on society has become available, according to a new report.

The Government and the main churches have said that they will fight an attempt by the EU Commission to remove the right of religious organisations to exemptions from the EU's equality directive, the Irish Catholic has reported.

The Catholic Church in the US has lost more members to other faiths than any other, a new survey has shown. The study, carried out by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, found that more than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion.

Single and cohabiting women are increasingly much more likely to commit suicide than married women, a UK report showed yesterday.

Commercialism is transforming children into selfish materialists with little sense of their own worth, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

A report being studied by the Government has proposed that a new welfare payment for poorer families could be financed by taxing child benefit for higher income parents, according to a report in the Irish Times. The proposal also suggests that child benefit be lowered for the third and subsequent child per family.

Lawyers for a Christian couple are to seek a judicial review of a decision by social workers to ban them from fostering young children because the couple refused to sign up to new gay equality laws.

A report being studied by the Government has proposed that a new welfare payment for poorer families could be financed by taxing child benefit for higher income parents, according to a report in the Irish Times. The proposal also suggests that child benefit be lowered for the third and subsequent child per family.

The proposal, contained in a research paper by a senior official in the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) says child benefit, which costs more than €2 billion a year, is "hugely inefficient" at tackling poverty because it is paid universally to all families regardless of their income.

It says that a new "second-tier" support should be provided to families on low incomes, rather than putting more resources into the child benefit system. This could be set at a similar value to the child benefit payment, which is currently worth €166 per child per month, and would replace payments such as the child dependent allowance and the family income supplement.

The new proposal could cost up to €775 million to implement, the report says. It goes on to suggest that savings are possible by taxing child benefit, rescinding the higher rate of child benefit for third and subsequent children and lowering overall spending on adult social welfare.

The Government, which is studying the report's findings, has pledged to provide a second-tier support for poorer families in the Programme for Government. The report Ireland's Child Income Supports: The Case for a New Form of Targeting is by John Sweeney, a senior social policy analyst at the NESC.

However, it is believed that the council - which includes representatives of key government departments, trade unions, employers and independent experts - was unable to reach an agreed position on the proposed support.

Some members believe that the proposal could have negative effects on splitting up families in order to qualify for the payments, while others argued that the cost of such a scheme was not sustainable, according to council sources.

The research paper itself suggests that the second-tier support could come in the form of a direct payment or a tax credit, depending on whether a family is working or not. In order to prevent the payment becoming a "poverty trap", the payment would be tapered as a family's income rises. Unlike some benefits for children, it would be paid to both families on welfare and those in low-income employment.

Where two parents do not agree on who should receive the new credit, it could simply be halved between them, the report suggests. Any proposal to tax child benefit would be highly contentious. The research paper notes that it was likely to be challenged in the courts

Any referendum on the Rights of the Child must explicitly vindicate “the economic, social and cultural rights of all children”, Focus Ireland, the charity which works with homeless people, has said.

The former Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Michael McDowell has reiterated his call for the Government to address the question of fathers rights. Speaking at a Bar Council conference, Mr McDowell said that the rights of unmarried fathers can be fought for in the Irish courts through the European Convention on Human Rights.