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.

Children who are brought up in households without married mothers and fathers are increasingly struggling in class, the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers has said.

According to one teacher, some mothers had up to eight children by different fathers. Such a situation created a "very dysfunctional" home environment, undermining Government attempts to raise the levels of education. Official UK data illustrates a trend away from the traditional family. There are now almost two million single parents in Britain, an increase of 250,000 over the past 10 years.

One teacher told the Daily Telegraph: "No matter how brilliant the lesson or how much has been spent on rebuilding the school, if a child comes in angry and in emotional turmoil because of their family life they will not learn.

"Family stability or the lack of it is an important determinant of a child's education outcomes. But this means that we have a significant problem in Britain because we already have worrying levels of social dysfunction and family breakdown and the situation is getting worse."

This month, head teachers warned that schools were being expected to patch up social problems rather than focus on educational issues as they were seen as the "only solid bedrock" in many children's lives.

Addressing the union's conference in Torquay, Mr Whalley said society did not find it "easy to accept that our modern attitudes towards family relationships can have negative consequences for our children".

The Government said its Children's Plan, a new policy blueprint, would increase the number of social services officers attached to schools. The conference was also told that teenage suicide rates are being fuelled by exposure to computers and television, creating an increased sense of "isolation" among young people.

They are more likely to spend hours in their bedrooms not communicating with family members or sharing problems than previous generations.

The problem has been exacerbated by increased stress caused by examinations and the rise in family breakdown, it was 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.

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.