Limerick is lreland's divorce capital, according to the latest figures from the Courts Services. More than 70 couples secured divorces or judicial separations at a sitting of the local Circuit Court in just one day.

A leading children's welfare group has called “a united front” to achieve a children's rights amendment to the Constitution. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) said that such a referendum must stay “at the top of the political agenda and that a Referendum be held as soon as possible”.

Ireland has been told to change its laws by the European Union because Irish equality legislation contains an exemption that allows religious-run institutions such as schools to protect their ethos by not hiring employees who could harm that ethos. The European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, Vladimír Špidla, has begun legal action against 12 member states, including Ireland, France and Germany, for their ‘failure’ to fully or properly implement an EU employment directive.

Recognising same-sex marriage would be an attack on the right of children to a mother and father, the director of the Iona Institute, David Quinn, told the Irish Times yesterday. Mr Quinn said that marriage as a social institution was designed primarily to ensure “that as many children as possible are raised by their mothers and fathers”, and therefore is “intrinsically heterosexual”.

Pupils in new State-run primary schools are to be taught religion according to their own faith, the Department of Education revealed yesterday.

Britain could be on the brink of an infertility timebomb due to the increasing use of IVF, according to a report in today's Daily Telegraph. According to the report, scientists worry that greater levels of IVF use means that couples with inherited fertility problems are able to have children and pass the condition on to the next generation.

THE Government may have to repeal parts of Ireland's birth registration laws following a High Court ruling last November, which found that transsexuals have the right to have their birth certs retrospectively altered. Dr Lydia Foy, the person at the centre of that case, yesterday became the first recipient of a declaration of ‘incompatibility’ with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Government's refusal to hold an early referendum on child protection this summer will place children at risk from sexual predators, according Fine Gael's spokesman on children Alan Shatter. Speaking at a hearing of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, Mr Shatter said that a gap in the law relating to statutory rape means that an adult who has sex with a child is able to offer a defence of "honest mistake" over a person's age.

Children with an active father figure are less likely to experience behavioural and psychological problems, according to new research from Sweden. A team of researchers from the University of Uppsala analysed a series of studies on the impact of fathers on children's lives. The research found that active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behavioural problems in boys and psychological problems in girls.

The fact that unmarried fathers do not have access rights to their children is “indefensible”, according to the former justice minister, Michael McDowell. He warned that, unless legislative action was taken by the Government soon, the European Convention on Human Rights would impose such rights on the Irish legal system.

Nearly half of voters approve of couples with children who are not married, according to a poll in last weekend's Sunday Independent. The survey, carried out by Milward Brown/IMS, found that, when asked whether they approved of couples with children not getting married, 49 per cent of people said yes. This figure rose to 70 per cent among 25 to 34 year olds.

The Government must ensure that its proposed referendum on children’s rights does not give the State unnecessary powers of intervention at the expense of the family” according to the Iona Institute. In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee examining the proposed wording, the Institute points out that the family is generally the place in which the interests of children are best protected. Any undermining of this presumption, even if unintentional, would ultimately be harmful to children, the submission says.

Children's rights group and the Children's Ombudsman are opposed to holding two separate referendums on children's rights and child protection. Organisations such as Children's Rights Alliance and the Cari Foundation (Children At Risk in Ireland) have expressed strong opposition to Government proposals to hold a referendum on child protection on the same day as the European Union reform treaty.

Human embryos with three separate biological parents have been created for the first time by British scientists, according to reports in the UK. The embryos, created by IVF, each contain DNA from one man and two women. The project that created them could lead to the first genetically altered babies being born in Britain. But opponents have said that the project represents a threat to the family unit.

The State is bound to recognise “the spiritual dimensions of its citizens”, according to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Speaking at a reception in honour of Cardinal Sean Brady last night, Mr Ahern said that he rejected the belief that religion “should be confined to the public domain”. The idea that “all reference to God, and the behavioural and ethical implications of that belief” should be excluded from public debate was not one shared by the Government.

Teachers should not assume that their pupils have a mother and a father, according to new guidelines commissioned by the Government and produced by gay rights group Stonewall. They say primary pupils as young as four should be familiarised with the idea of same-sex couples to help combat homophobic attitudes.

Cardinal Sean Brady has said that allegations that Catholic schools are non-inclusive are “unfair and offensive”. Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals Network in Killarney, Cardinal Brady said that he was frustrated by suggestions that Catholic and other faith-based schools were divisive and inconsistent with a pluralist society.

The head of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN), Sean Cottrell, has called for “a radical rethink” of the primary school system. Mr Cottrell, whose organisation has been holding its annual conference in Killarney this weekend, said that the State “needed to take control of more than paying teachers' salaries”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has attacked proposals in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would remove the reference to the need for donor-conceived children to have a father.

Mortgages and high rents now consume 20 per cent of the typical weekly budget for most Britons, as compared to just 8.7 per cent 50 years ago, according to new figures. The findings, part of the Office for National Statistics’ Family Spending report, a one off study, showed that, when insurance, maintenance and water are included, housing accounts for 25 per cent of the typical household budget.