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Council of Europe resolution "threatens religious freedom", says US group

A leading religious freedom campaigning organisation has warned that a Council of Europe resolution promoting homosexual rights poses a serious risk to religious freedom.

22/01/10
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Survey reveals high level of casual sex among young Irish

An Irish Examiner survey looking at the sexual behaviour of Irish 18-35 year olds has found that a massive 71 per cent in this age group have had at least one ‘one-night-stand’. while 11 percent have had 11 or more one-night-stands.

21/01/10
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Children’s amendment will give State more power of intervention in families

The Oireachtas committee proposing a children’s rights referendum will recommend an amendment that will lower the threshold for State intervention in the family.

21/01/10
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Department must make “definite call” on benefit, lone parent group says

A single parent campaign group has called for the Department of Social and Family Affairs to make a “definite call” on the age at which certain family income supports will cease.

21/01/10
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Government to offer HPV vaccine to 12-year-old girls

Up to 30,000 girls in first year in secondary school are to be offered a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which is passed on through sexual contact, from later this year, Minister for Health Mary Harney has announced.

19/01/10
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Tax break for marriage will be "modest" under Tories, Cameron says

David Cameron has hinted that any Tory tax break for married couples will be modest, saying that the policy is aimed at sending a message to voters, not at changing their financial circumstances, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

19/01/10
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Dawkins "parading his own failure of imagination", says television presenter

A leading UK author and broadcaster has accused Richard Dawkins of “parading his own failure of imagination” by failing to consider the possible existence of God.

19/01/10
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Children must be taught how to say no to sex, says Cameron

Children would be taught how to say no to sex under a Conservative Government, David Cameron says.

19/01/10
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“Equality” for gays should trump religious freedom, says Obama nominee

One of President Obama's nominees to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has compared traditional moral teachings on homosexuality with racism and has said that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, that may negatively affect homosexual “equality.”

19/01/10
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Elderly to outnumber children by 2045, UN report says

The number of elderly people worldwide will outnumber children for the first time in 2045, according to a new United Nations report.

14/01/10
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Former Lord Chancellor argues for conscience opt out on equality laws

A former head of the English and Welsh judiciary, has said that equality laws shouldn’t force people to provide goods or services in a way that conflicts with their conscience.

14/01/10
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Faith schools must teach that homosexuality is "normal", says Lib Dem leader

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has said that children attending faith schools should be taught that homosexuality is "normal and harmless". The proposal has been attacked by one Church of England bishops as “frighteningly fascist”.

14/01/10
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Introduce State-run schools to promote social integration: OECD

An international think-tank has suggested that the Government set up new state-run primary schools to cater for the new multi-ethnic pupil population.

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), suggests replacing some Catholic schools with new state-run schools.

According to the OECD report, entitled
‘OECD Reviews of Migrant Education: Ireland’, one in 10 primary school students are immigrants. This number is likely to be out-of-date however, as the recession has caused tens of thousands of immigrants to return home. Based on the earlier figures, the report claims that the current patronage model has started to show strains, even though 80 percent of schools can enroll all applicants for places in a given year. Of the remaining 20 percent of schools where there is an over-enrolment, most children are selected on the basis of having a sibling already in the school, followed by whether they live in the locality, followed by whether they belong to the religion of the school.

CSO figures from Census 2006 show that, while immigration has led to a significant change in the school-going population, it has not led to such a radical change in the religious composition of society as might be supposed.

According to the figures, 75 per cent of immigrants were Christians and 54 per cent were Catholic. A majority of the rest were of some other religion, mainly Islam.

The number of multi-denominational and interdenominational primary schools has increased from 39 to 67 from 2005 to 2008. But the number of non-Catholic schools is still small. The number of schools under the patronage of Catholic bishops has only dropped slightly -- from 3,039 to 3,027 -- over the same period, says the report.

A UK study published last year showed that faith schools are better at tackling extremism and promoting race relations than State -run schools. A third of State-funded (‘maintained’) schools in England are faith-based.

Such schools, the study says, are considerably more likely to be praised by Ofsted, the UK body for monitoring school standards, for building relationships with minority groups in the local community.

The study, by Prof David Jesson, from York University, said the conclusions ran directly counter to the view that religious schools were “divisive” and promoted segregation.

Researchers compared non-religious schools to Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu schools.

In a survey in 2008, a Department of Education audit found that Catholic primary schools topped the table for social inclusion.

The figures showed that Catholic primary schools were more likely to enrol children from the traveller community, from non-Irish backgrounds and children with special needs than other denominational and multidenominational schools.

The OECD also recommends that existing schools should network and co-operate to ensure a more even distribution in the enrolment of immigrant students. Integration Minister John Curran said the report would help the development of the new Intercultural Education Strategy which will be finalised shortly.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that a joint department-VEC steering group was overseeing the development of the new Co Dublin schools including arrangements for the delivery of religious education and evaluation of the pilot phase.

14/01/10

Defence of marriage "premier social justice issue of our time": Archbishop

The defence of traditional marriage is "one of the premier social justice issues of our time", according the head of the US Catholic Bishops committee to defend marriage.

14/01/10
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New Jersey Senate rejects same-sex marriage

New Jersey's Democrat-controlled Senate has rejected a proposal that would have made it the sixth state in the US to allow marriages involving same-sex couples.

12/01/10
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Religious believers must be allowed to take part in moral debates - Pope

The causes of environmental problems are “of the moral order”, the Pope has told the Vatican's diplomatic corps.

12/01/10
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Strong families build strong character, says Cameron

Character-formation and personal responsibility are the key to tackling a host of social problems, and the evidence suggests that character is formed in the home, Conservative leader David Cameron has said.

12/01/10
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Demand for paid childcare may be lower than estimated

The parents of an estimated 30,000 children eligible for the Government's ‘free’ pre-school year have not enrolled in the scheme, it has emerged, which may indicate that demand for paid childcare is lower than estimated.

11/01/10
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Secularism to blame for growing Islamisation of Europe, says Cardinal

The increasing secularisation of Europe, not Muslims, is to blame for the continent's increasing Islamisation, a leading European cardinal has warned.

07/01/10
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Minister seeks to make Stay Safe mandatory in schools

Minister for Education, Batt O'Keefe, has said he believes that the controversial Stay Safe child programme should be mandatory in all schools.

07/01/10
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"The child...shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents."

Article 7. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.