42 babies born to girls age 15 and under in 2015
The statistics, revealed in the Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2016 released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), do not give details of any of these children’s backgrounds. However, if their babies were conceived in this country, under Irish law, the mothers are victims of rape or statutory rape, as the age of consent here is 17 years.
This was also a significant increase on the 23 babies born to girls aged 15 or younger in 2014 and on the 27 and 28 such births in 2012 and 2013 respectively
Overall, there were 1,187 babies born to mothers aged 19 or younger last year.
Meanwhile, Irish people are living longer, marrying later, and shying away from religious ceremonies when tying the knot.
The data shows that fewer couples are opting for a Catholic ceremony, with the number of weddings falling from 15,867 in 2005 to 12,486 last year. Conversely, the number of people having humanist ceremonies rose from 895 in 2014 to 1,264 last year.
Same-sex marriages —legalised last November — accounted for 0.4% (91) of the 22,116 weddings in 2015.
There were 376 civil partnership ceremonies in 2015; 126 female unions and 250 male. More than three quarters (78.2%) of these same-sex couples live in the Leinster area, with more than half (52.9%) giving an address in Dublin City as their future residence.
Meanwhile, decreases were recorded in most offence groupings over 2014 and 2015. For example, the number of murders dropped from 80 to 62, theft and related offences dropped from 77,697 to 75,876 and burglaries fell from 27,635 to 26,259.
