A High Court ruling that has denied access and guardianship rights to a sperm donor father was "anti-child and anti-father", according to the Iona Institute. David Quinn, the director of the Institute, said that Mr Justice John Hedigan's judgment was "badly misguided" and ignores a child's right to be raised by a father where possible. The ruling was also attacked by groups representing unmarried fathers.

The High Court has ruled that a sperm-donor father has no access or guardianship rights to his child. The case involved a sperm donor who was seeking guardianship rights in relation to a child he had fathered on behalf of a lesbian couple. The man had agreed to father the child on the basis that he would have role of "favourite uncle" to the child, and had obtained leave to seek access and guardianship rights in the Supreme Court last year.

A majority of teens want to see the legal drinking age being reduced from 18 to 16 as part of series of steps to tackle alcohol misuse and promote more responsible drinking, according to a report on the misuse of alcohol by teenagers launched yesterday by the Minister of State for Children.

Family breakdown costs US taxpayers a staggering $112 billion every year, the equivalent of $1 trillion every decade, according to new research. The study, carried out under the supervision of Dr Ben Scafidi, economics professor at Georgia College & State University, illustrates the impact of increased rates of poverty caused by family breakdown on the public purse.

A leading Labour MP has accused Schools Secretary Ed Balls of carrying out a "near criminal" attack on high-performing faith schools in the UK. In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, former welfare minister Frank Field said Mr Balls was using the row to position himself for Labour's "next leadership contest".

A clear majority of voters believe that married families are the best environment in which to raise children, according to a poll in the Sunday Independent. And a majority also feel that having both parents working “is not good for the development of their children”.

The number of teenagers having sex before they reach the age of consent is increasing, according to new figures released today. The figures, published in the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships, also revealed that teenagers who have sex before 17 were twice as likely to experience a crisis pregnancy, acquire a sexually transmitted infection, and were more likely to have an abortion.

A leading Government minister in the UK has been accused of conducting a “witch-hunt” against faith schools after his claims that such schools were barring children from poorer backgrounds was undermined by evidence.

Dysfunctional family life is to blame for a new and disturbing trend in which Limerick gangs are using children as young as 10 and 11 as footsoldiers. Limerick Chief Superintendent Willie Keane said that this was “a very worrying trend” and pointed out that many of the children were coming from “families where there is no great parenting skills or where the skills are not what they should be".

Greater diversity in schooling, not a one size fits all model, is the best approach to education policy, according to the chairman of the Catholic Church's Education Commission. Writing in yesterday’s Irish Independent, the Bishop of Kilmore, Rt Rev Leo O'Reilly, said that parents' wishes ought to determine the future shape of education in Ireland.

A senior family court judge in the UK has said that there is an "epidemic" of family failure which will have "catastrophic" effects on society. In a speech to family lawyers, Mr Justice Coleridge, a Family Division judge for England and Wales, said that the results of this trend could end up being as destructive as global warming. He added that the Government was failing to tackle the problem adequately.

The Church of Ireland bishop of Meath and Kildare, Richard Clarke, has said that no-one has a right to a child. Speaking to a meeting of the Irish Council of Churches (ICC), Bishop Clarke said that he believed that, even in a secular understanding of marriage, the best place to raise a child was marriage “in the stable relationship of a man and a woman”.

The EU's top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that a person is entitled to their dead partner's pension in all EU states that treat homosexual partnerships similarly to marriages. The ruling. announced on Tuesday (1 April), comes in response to a case taken in 2005 by a German citizen, Tadao Maruko.

The Church of Ireland has said that it wants denominational faith formation, such as preparation for sacraments, to be taught outside school hours in the new, multidenominational VEC-run schools to be launched in West Dublin next September. The statement is the latest development in an ongoing debate over how religious education should be handled in the new schools, and is at odds with the position taken by the Catholic Church on the issue, which feels such classes should take place during school hours.

The Government's legislation on civil partnerships will extend almost all of the benefits and legal obligations of marriage to same-sex couples, according to a report in today’s Irish Times. Under the the heads of legislation due to appear before cabinet next week, same-sex partners will be given marriage-like rights in a range of areas such as property, social welfare, succession, maintenance, pensions and tax.

New UK figures show that nearly 50 per cent of newly married couples will end up getting divorced.

Age classification certificates on video games are needed to stop children accessing graphic images of sex and violence, according to a UK Government advisor. Dr Tanya Byron, a television psychologist, has also said that parents should keep computers in communal areas of the home such as the living room rather than youngsters' bedrooms so that parents can monitor which websites they visit.

Marriage in England and Wales is in danger of becoming “a minority format” for families with children, according to UK think-tank Civitas. The comment comes as new figures show that the rate of marriage in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since records began.

While the number of single, divorced or widowed people rose in 2006, those choosing to marry fell, producing the lowest marriage rates since 1862. Figures by the Office for National Statistics show the number of marriages dropped by 4 per cent in 2006 compared with 2005, from 247,805 to 236,980. Between 2004-5, marriages fell even more heavily, by 9 per cent from 273,069.

"We are seeing a great increase in cohabitation and serial partnerships," Robert Whelan, deputy director of Civitas, told the Daily Telegraph. "Marriage is regarded as too much of a hot potato by politicians who fear that by talking about it they will be seen as discriminating against single people, so I’m not looking for a solution from Westminster any time soon."

Another UK think-tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, accused the Government of “overseeing the death of marriage by killing it off". Jill Kirby, director of the think-tank, said the Government's lack of practical financial support for marriage, and the removal of the terms "marriage" and "spouse" from many official documents were undermining the institution.

"Mountains of evidence show married families are most likely to stay together when children are growing up,” Ms Kirby added.

It was now time for the Government to “take positive steps to underpin this most crucial institution”, she continued. Mr Brown's concerns about child poverty, Ms Kirby added, had to be linked to “practical proposals to remove the penalties for marriage contained in the welfare system and promote positive support for marriage through fiscal incentives."

The figures also showed that the age at which people are getting married is steadily rising. The average age for all marriages has risen by almost five years for men since 1991, to 36.4 years, and just over 4.5 years for women, to 33.5. The average age at first marriage is now 31.8 years for men, and 29.7 years for women.

Recent research by the Christian campaigning charity CARE found that three out of four ordinary families would be better off living apart than sharing a home under Labour’s benefits system. For some families, such as those with one child and a wife who stays at home, the premium would be almost £100 a week.

Campaigners say this, and several other reasons, account for the decline in marriage. The cost of a home also makes many people put property acquisition ahead a wedding ceremony. The ONS said that with the exception of an increase in marriage between 2002-2004, which it could not explain, there had been a long-term downward trend in marriage.

Marriages that were the first for both parties in 2006 accounted for 61 per cent of all marriages, but remarriages accounted for nearly a fifth (18 per cent). However remarriages are also in decline. While marriages that were the first for both parties have fallen by 37 per cent since 1991, remarriages have fallen by a quarter.

Civil ceremonies are the most popular, representing 66 per cent of all ceremonies in 2006, up from 65 per cent in 2005. The number of religious ceremonies fell by seven per cent to 79,490 compared with 2005. Since 1991 this figure has halved compared with a fall in the number of all marriages of 23 per cent in the same period. Religious ceremonies accounted for 34 per cent of all marriages in 2006.

The overwhelming majority of parents want the right to pick the kind of school they want for their children -- only a small minority favours suggestions that all children should go to the same kind of school in the interests of social integration, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Iona Institute.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has agreed to allow his ministers and MPs to vote according to their conscience when a controversial new law governing embryo research and assisted reproduction comes before the House of Commons. Previously, Mr Brown had steadfastly refused a free vote on the Bill despite a mutiny threatened by three of his Catholic Cabinet ministers and a number of Catholic MPs.