The Seanad has passed legislation to prohibit pro-life gatherings near hospitals and clinics that administer abortion.

The so-called Safe Access Zones Bill had previously been passed by the Dáil, and will now go to the President to be signed into law.

The Bill will prohibit any anti-abortion presence, including silent prayer, within 100 metres of facilities that could be providing access to abortion.

Independent Senator Rónán Mullen said Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, had nothing to be proud of.

“He has got an easy win for himself by caving in to an activist group and by attacking the peaceful expression of dissent on abortion”, he said.

He called on the President to consult the Council of State about referring the bill to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.

He also urged peaceful protesters to challenge the legislation.

“People should continue to witness respectfully and not to be intimidated by a Government that wants to silence people”.

In a statement, the Pro Life Campaign described the Bill as “draconian” and said it “will do nothing to help women in unplanned pregnancies. Instead, it seeks to smear pro-life citizens and introduces sweeping measures which undermine everyone’s fundamental rights.”

The civil war in Sudan is “a forgotten conflict with no winners” and “one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time”, two bishops have said in a joint Anglican-Roman Catholic statement.

The conflict, whose first anniversary fell last month, continues to have “devastating consequences” for the people of Sudan, the statement, published on Wednesday, says.

It was issued by the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, the C of E’s lead bishop for foreign affairs, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s lead bishop for Africa, the RC Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Revd Paul Swarbrick.

“With attention turned elsewhere, Sudan remains largely overlooked — a forgotten conflict with no winners that is already one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time,” they write.

The Bishops point to the resulting hunger crisis, quoting a report from the World Food Programme which states that 10.5 million people — equivalent to the population of London — have been displaced, and more than 25 million people need humanitarian aid.

“Nearly 15,000 have already been killed, and 26,000 more have been injured, with women and children bearing the brunt of unspeakable violence,” the Bishops say.

Pope Francis’s top diplomat said a recent vote by the European Parliament to style abortion as a ‘fundamental right’ constitutes a “radical attack” on human life.

“When life is attacked in such a radical way, you truly have to ask what kind of future we want to build,” said Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, adding that the situation has produced “great sadness in the depths of my heart”.

While it was considered largely a symbolic result, given that amending the European Charter of Fundamental Rights would require the consent of all 27 member states and both Poland and Malta have already indicated that they won’t approve the change, the result indicated widespread support for the move. There were 336 votes in favour, 163 against and 39 abstentions, while the vote also came with the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron who has just overseen France become the first country in the world to make abortion a constitutional right.

Every Irish MEP present voted in favour of the change.

An ‘assisted dying’ Bill before the Scottish Parliament normalises suicide and rejects our “common responsibility” to protect human life, the country’s Catholic Bishops have warned.

In a pastoral letter, they said: “We are called to care, not to kill.”

The Bishops wrote to parishioners: “At a time when suicide is on the rise in Scotland and we are doing our best to reduce it, what message are we sending to those who are vulnerable when we say that suicide is okay provided it is overseen by a doctor?

“Assisted suicide, which allows us to kill our brothers and sisters, takes us down a dangerous spiral that always puts at risk the most vulnerable members of our society”.

Catholics across Scotland were asked by the Bishop’s Conference to contact their MSPs to urge them “to reject the dangerous proposal”. The letter also said the legislation “would devalue life and put immense pressure on the most vulnerable to end their lives prematurely”.

Ireland has been a “clear outlier” in Europe for having a relatively large average household size, according to new research published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

The country has a higher fertility rate than most EU countries even though it is now well below replacement level. It also has a younger population and higher share of households with children.

The ESRI research compared the trends in household size in the Republic with other European countries for the period 2005-2021.

The average number of people per household in Ireland was 2.74 in the 2022 census. Across Europe the average figure was 2.2 members per household that same year.

“Ireland is a very clear outlier for much of the period with consistently high household size levels; since 2011 onwards Ireland has had the highest level of average household size of all the countries presented,” the report says.

It adds that Ireland is highest alongside Spain, Portugal and Greece.

The Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and also Germany have the lowest.

The Conservative Government is to axe a cap on faith-based admissions to religious schools that restricts them to offering at most, only half their places to children of faith.

The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, it will encourage faith schools to expand and create more “high-quality” places for school children.

Under current rules, any new faith schools that are oversubscribed can only prioritise pupils based on faith for 50 per cent of its places.

When the cap was introduced, it was argued that it would stop the proliferation of hardline religious schools. However, ministers feel that the cap has had little impact in that regard and instead had the undesired effect of preventing Catholic schools from expanding.

The Catholic Church has argued that turning away children of faith for non-Catholic children was incompatible with canon law. The Catholic education service refused to participate in the free schools programme until the Government relented and repealed the cap.

Officials at the Department for Education believe lifting the cap will encourage Catholic schools – which are often highly sought after by parents – to set up new institutions and expand their existing provision by joining multi-academy trusts.

A large number of MPs spoke against legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia at a debate prompted by a mass petition in the House of Commons Monday.

Many of the speakers raised serious concerns that the elderly, sick and vulnerable would be pressurised into ending their lives for fear of being a burden.

Commenting on the exchanges, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said it appears to be a policy area in which there is a genuine debate and openness of mind.

“Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabilities Vicky Foxcroft, who voted in favour of assisted suicide in 2015, has since changed her mind and now opposes the practice due to concerns raised by people with disabilities who fear they will be adversely affected by a change in legislation”, she said.

“This particular debate is largely symbolic but is an opportunity for MPs and the public to learn from the mistakes of other jurisdictions such as Canada, where safeguards are rapidly being eroded including the removal of the requirement that a person be terminally ill to be eligible for an ‘assisted death’ and the planned expansion of ‘assisted dying’ on the grounds of mental illness alone from 2027”.

A proposal to criminalise “influence” in public spaces near abortion facilities was debated in the Scottish parliament yesterday, despite warnings from free speech campaigners that such legislation could result in “thoughtcrime” prosecutions as seen in England.

The Bill was launched by Gillian McKay MSP of the Scottish Green Party, who are no longer members of a coalition government following First Minister, Humza Yousaf’s decision to dissolve the Bute House Agreement last week.

The Stage One debate comes despite 77% of respondents to the Scottish Parliament consultation opposing the introduction of so-called “buffer zones”.

Lois McLatchie Miller of ADF UK commented on the odd juxtaposition of pushing an extreme piece of social legislation even as the Government is on the brink of falling: “Following the international embarrassment marking the launch of the recent ‘hate speech’ law, the last thing Scotland needs is more censorial legislation. Yet, even amidst the chaos of a collapsing Yousaf administration, our parliament continues to push measures which could see citizens criminalised for engaging in peaceful conversations, or even offering help”.

An official petition with more than 203,000 signatures has triggered a parliamentary debate in the UK on legalising assisted suicide.

Critics have decried the debate as ‘ideological’ and lamented the lack of focus on palliative care.

The petition calls on the Government to allocate time for ‘assisted dying’ to be fully debated in the House of Commons and to allow a vote on the issue.

It adds: “Terminally ill people who are mentally sound and near the end of their lives should not suffer unbearably against their will.”

However, Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of the campaign group Care Not Killing, said: “Instead of discussing this dangerous and ideological policy, we should be talking about how to fix the UK’s broken and patchy palliative care system so everyone can have a dignified death.”

Responding to the petition, the Ministry of Justice said assisted suicide “is a matter for Parliament to decide and an issue of conscience for individual parliamentarians rather than one for government policy”.

The Petitions debate will not end with a binding vote.

MPs last voted on assisted suicide in 2015. That bill was defeated by 330 votes to 118.

Catholic bishops from four EU countries have issued a new pastoral letter in advance of the European Parliament elections in June.

Adopting a pro-EU stance, the bishops have urged people to “improve it with the tools that democracy offers us” and to “choose candidates who support the European project”.

The bishops recall the foundations of European integration and the issues it faces today, including national, geopolitical, economic, and migratory crises.

Confronted with this “crisis of European consciousness”, they say there is a need for “a new breath to choose unity in diversity and solidarity with individuals”. The prelates refer to a “European humanism” which they say encompasses the values shared by all Europeans and which should guide voting in the upcoming elections.

In particular, the Catholic leaders highlight a “humanism of dialogue” and an openness “to foreigners and migrants,”, while warning against the temptation of “closing off” one’s borders.

During the unveiling of the document, the bishops paid special tribute to Robert Schuman, a sainthood candidate who was declared “Venerable” in 2021.