Fergus Finlay, Chief Executive of Barnardos, has claimed that “a Constitutional referendum is urgently needed” to protect children. In a statement, he said he was dismayed by signals from the Government indicating that they were backing away from holding such a referendum on the issue of “children's rights”.

The “ prevailing culture and social agenda” being pursued by the EU appears to be predominantly secular and hostile to religion, according to the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady.

A newly created EU human rights body, the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), has called for binding EU regulations to force member states to legalise same-sex marriage.

Pensioners outnumber children in the UK for the first time as more and more people live longer, according to new figures.

Figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the pensioner population is set to grow to more than 12 million within two years.

The number of pensioners is currently 11,561,000. This compares with 11,509,000 children aged under 16. The ageing of the population is set to affect housing, health and education for years to come.

Within the overall figures, the number of over-80s has doubled to 2.7million in the past 27 years.

As soon as the preliminary figures emerged, officials from the ONS were called in by ministers to discuss the policy implications.

Mervyn Kohler, special adviser at Help the Aged, said that the figures indicated an urgent need to develop the potential of older people or else Britain would end up supporting a costly dependency culture among the elderly. More companies should invest in training older people to allow them to work, part-time or full-time, beyond the usual retirement age, he said.

Charities for older people said that the greater consequences of an ageing population would be in housing and in the community, where change would be needed to allow them to continue living independent lives.

Mr Kohler called for practical measures, including designing houses with fewer steps, doors wide enough to take wheelchairs and electricity sockets installed at waist level.

In communities he said that there would have to be more public transport to make it easier for the elderly to shop, plus the siting of seats and benches to allow them to rest while walking and more public lavatories for those who suffered from incontinence.

He said: “All the trends we have seen recently is that these kinds of facilities are going into decline. We are closing post offices, public toilets and public houses. We cannot afford to let it continue when we see this kind of demographic change taking place.”

Even if many of these facilities are put in place, Mr Kohler said that Britain faced a “huge time bomb” of age-related dementia. “There will have to be a massive investment in research into dementia. If we don't crack that, we are going to find ourselves with a huge number of people suffering from dementia, and the costs will be enormous.”

The rise in the number of pensioners and the fall in the number of children means there will be fewer taxpayers to support the ageing population - the demographic time bomb.

One argument for increasing levels of immigration is that this could help to mitigate the impact of a higher proportion of pensioners.

Yesterday's figures from the ONS shows the rate of immigration reaching a record level last year, with more than 600,000 people arriving - more than double the number when Labour came to power.

Britain's population rose to just under 61 million in mid-2007, a rise of almost 2 million since 2001. Record immigration was matched by a record 406,000 people leaving the country, including 202,000 British citizens. This gave a net influx of 198,000 last year, a net gain of 1 million since 2001.

Although net migration accounts for more than half of all population growth, officials said that the main cause of growth in the next two years will be a rise in the birth rate after an influx of female migrants.

Twenty-three per cent of births last year were to mothers born outside the UK but in some parts of the country the figure is much higher. Newham, in East London, tops the list, with 75 per cent of births being to foreign women, and Brent with 72 per cent.

Parents in the UK are facing a severe shortage of childminders after bureaucracy prompted thousands to abandon the profession. According to new Government figures, more than 8,000 people have given up offering child care in England in just four years, more than a tenth of the total.

Children from bigger families are happier, healthier and more successful, according to a new report from British think tank Civitas. The study also suggests that the middle-classes are made to feel that large families impact negatively on the environment and damage their careers.

Forty per cent of married women with dependent children stay at home to look after them, according to new labour force figures from the CSO.

The INTO have described calls by Fine Gael for immigrants to be separated from other students until they can speak English as 'discriminatory, inequitable and deeply flawed'. They have also suggested that the proposal could be challenged legally.

An article in next month's Intercom magazine has condemned the “uncontrolled use of AHR [Assisted Human Reproductive] technology” saying that this could “lead to unforeseeable consequences for civil society”.

London has been dubbed “the divorce capital of the world”, according to one leading UK family lawyer. The city is awarded the title because England is thought to be “the best divorce jurisdiction” for foreign claimants, according to James Turner, QC, a counsel involved in top family law cases.

Dutch authorities are now giving de facto recognition to polygamous marriages, according to a report in Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad. Although polygamy is banned in the Netherlands, the marriages of Muslims who have several wives are recognised by Dutch authorities.

Professor Robert Winston, one of the UK's top IVF experts, has said that fertility clinics are ignoring a more successful fertility treatment in favour of IVF for commercial reasons.

The Government will not issue a directive to schools on the wearing of the Islamic hijab headscarf in schools, according to Minister of State for Integration Conor Lenihan. Mr Lenihan said that the wearing of the headscarf was “not an issue” in most schools.

The Department of Education said it would "consider" criticisms made yesterday by Chair of the Bishops' Commission on Education, Bishop Leo O'Reilly of the Department's claimed policy preference for multi-denominational education.

The Chair of the Bishops' Commission on Education, Dr Leo O'Reilly, has said the principle of parental choice must be central to education provision. Citing a poll conducted on behalf of the Iona Institute, he said that parents were overwhelmingly in favour of having the right to choose denominational education.

The Government is now looking at using legislation rather than a referendum to address concerns relating to children's rights, according to Minister for State for Children, Barry Andrews. In an interview with the Irish Times, the Minister indicated that he believed that issues such as the best interest of the child could be addressed through legislation.

Parents in receipt of the Lone Parent Allowance will be assigned welfare advisers within months of the birth of their children to help direct them towards training, education and work opportunities, under a new Government scheme.

A Labour MP has tabled a motion in Parliament that would eliminate the freedom of religious conscience of public servants. The move comes in the wake of a ruling last month in which a Christian marriage registrar who refused to carry out homosexual marriages was found to have been discriminated against on the grounds of religion.

Hundreds of Irishwomen are travelling to clinics across the Continent to receive IVF treatment using eggs donated from young European women.

Children who watch more than three hours of television a day have more behaviour problems than other children, according to a new study.